GOOGLE LAUNCHES GOOGLE ANALYTICS... IT'S FREE

Pretty cool. I was wondering what they were going to do with Urchin.

Google has renamed its Urchin web analytics unit to be -- yep -- Google Analytics (as Gary predicted), in a move that follows with similar rebranding such as Keyhole being renamed Google Earth. And just like with Keyhole and Google's Picasa photo software, Google is turning Google Analytics into a free product.

The On Demand product is free for anyone. If you don't have an AdWords account, you're limited to five million page views per month (which is a lot). Need more? Make a $5 one time deposit, open an AdWords account, and you're set with unlimited page views.

The software based product remains fee-based. Google said that might change, but there were no immediate plans at the moment.

Google also said a number of new dashboards for different types of customers -- webmasters, advertisers and so on -- are being introduced to spotlight key metrics. (full post)