Google at last responds to the new ‘Yahoo Analytics (beta)” platform launched just a few weeks ago. Google has made some changes to their analytics program as a response to Yahoo’s re-branding of IndexTools as Yahoo Web Analytics (beta). Changes include a brand new API, the ability to create custom reports, advanced segmentation, an improved user interface, as well as integration with its AdSense advertising platform to allow for advanced ad performance tracking. The great advantage of Yahoo analytics over Google Analytics is that the information gets updated on user activity within a few minutes. Google takes about 24 hours for getting the updates. When compared to Google analytics, yahoo analytics is more colorful with easy-to-read charts and graphics for data reporting and deep tie-ins with each company's ad services. To cope up with these advancements in yahoo analytics, Google has planned several more updates to be implemented in the forth coming weeks. Some of the updates that we can hope to see in Google analytics are:Advanced segmentation which allows to isolate and analyze subsets of your traffic with the help of certain filters such as "paid traffic" or "visits with conversions"Custom reports to customize the reporting layout to increase understandability.Motion charts to add to the look of the page (eye candy)And most importantly the new AdSense-Analytics integration which is capable of generating reports on the best revenue-generating pages on your site, as well as the referrals that statistically bring in more revenue in your pocketsWith all these updates, Google tries to race past Yahoo’s innovative features including augmented and customizable data reporting and segmentation. However, I hope that Yahoo’s web analytics dashboard will still look clean as no advertisements will be showing up until 2009.