Intercept launches online audience behavior tool

By Latha Kartikeyan

CHENNAI: Intercept Consulting, Chennai-based marketing solutions provider, recently launched WebSight, an online audience tracking tool, to enable site owners, advertisers, webmasters, marketers and salespersons to make decisions about their Internet site design, client base, marketing, and e-commerce strategy. The software is available free for the first six months to those who register as members at the company's website www.websight.co.in. Two bytes of WebSight Tracker code is required to be inserted in all the pages of a site. Once this code is installed, WebSight measures and stores page views, referring URLs, IP number of the user and the time and duration of access.

"Though this concept is not new in the US, it is for the first time that such a comprehensive tool is being launched in India," said Intercept Technology's K P Krishnan, Client Understanding. Online audience behavior is tracked through parameters like page views (which indicate the number of people who visit a site from within and outside India), referrals (how people visit the site--either directly or though links etc.), user sessions (includes which pages are viewed by the user) and session duration (how long a user stays on the site).

WebSight then processes the information daily and prepares reports. Page view reports indicate the most and the least accessed pages on particular sites, along with top ten countries accessing the site. The user sessions report has information such as how long viewers stay on the site, which pages they enter the site from and which pages they leave the site from. There is also a Customized Analyzer that answers specific queries. WebSight, however, works only with browsers that support JavaScript - IE 3+ and Netscape Navigator 2+. Said V. Krishnaraj, Client Understanding, "WebSight would enable site owners and advertisers to think of ways to enhance their website in order to retain user interest. It will be a useful tool while planning strategies, as it gives valuable information about what kind of people browse the site or which country they browse from etc."

The cost of maintaining WebSight is steep though--approximately Rs 1 lakh a month. Explaining the price, Mr Krishnan says, "Our server is in the US and hence rentals have to be paid. Besides, the WebSight database is active 24 hrs a day. However, a few months down the road, if we feel that there is a pressing demand for the product we may start charging a nominal amount for its use." There are plans in the offing to launch another product `Accept' to deliver advertisements across different sites. This product would enable an advertiser to ensure that the ad appears only for browsers in Chennai if so desired or at a particular time during the day. The company recently completed an online Indian Internet User Survey across 17 Web sites to determine user behavior in Indian content Web sites. Questionnaires, which were prepared by TN Sofres Mode (market research agency), were posted on Web sites like khoj.com, bawarchi.com, clicktickets.com, www.ciol.com, etc. It has received over 1,200 responses over the two months. The results, however, are yet to be known.