Flurry, creator of the free “by developers for developers” mobile app analytics service Flurry Analytics, today announced two new extensions to the service. The new services, which provide better tracking of users within apps, are being released for free to Flurry clients.
The new features:
User Flow Tracking: This is equivalent to “click streams” on the web. With this service, developers can track the sequence of actions that consumers complete in their applications from the time of launch.
Dynamic Parameters: User actions can now be explored in greater detail. The example given was that if search box exists within an app, the developer can access details including most popular keyword searches, numbers of words used in searches, and what kinds of searches are performed at different times of the day.
The new services are available on all Flurry-supported platforms: iPhone, Android, Blackberry and Java ME.
From the release:
“Flurry is committed to dramatically raising the standard of iPhone and Android Analytics for its customers,” said Flurry CEO, Simon Khalaf. “Building the ability to track user flows and event parameters were technically challenging but exactly what our customers needed to better understand their consumers, increase retention and grow their active user base.”
“Millions of consumers have come to expect the highest quality game experiences from Digital Chocolate, such as Tower Bloxx and Crazy Penguin Catapult,” said Digital Chocolate Chief Operating Officer, Jason Loia. “Partnering with Flurry provides us with critically important data to consistently improve our games for our consumers.”
What we think?
A completely free analytics service? Now that caused my ears to prick up. We’ve looked at Flurry before, and back then we were told that the service was “OK”. Hopefully these new additions will push it over that rating.
Not being a developer, I can’t really judge the merits of the service. But I love the idea behind it. Flurry already supports the major app/widget supporting platforms, so it offers it’s free analytics to pretty much any app developer. With many platforms, Android in particular, offering support for the “bedroom developer” or small business, being able to give decent analytics to these developers could really boost productivity. Even if Flurry isn’t the fanciest service available, it still spreads good data among a large number of people. If more developers can produce better content, based on actual consumer behaviour, then the user-end quality of service on the mobile web can grow and grow. If you look at some of the most popular sites on the on-line web, a lot of them feature heavy amounts of user-generated content. Engaged, catered-for user bases are essential to success, and I really think that these kinds of free services will support that.
new services it’s always nice, but when they are free – what can be better!