"Silo" is a popular term used in business these days. Most often it describes tactics, strategies, or data that cannot or is not integrated within the whole of an organization. Usually, if something is in a silo, it's not a good thing. How many times have you heard about a department or group in your organization operating in a silo, ignoring everyone else and going off on their own tangent? The digital world is no different, and today there's a new addition: the "analytics silo of death". This gruesome, dark place is where all web analytics initiatives eventually end up if neglected, ignored, or left alone to gather dust. Analytics has often been one of the holy grails of the digital world, the premise being the more a company knows about what's happening on a website, the more they will be able to understand (and profit from) their customers. In the past year, Omniture's IPO, WebSide Story's acquisition of Visual Sciences, and the tidal wave of Google Analytics have pushed web metrics in to the spotlight. For the first time, businesses of all sizes have access to data that was once beholden only to those with the largest pocketbooks. Companies flocked to the analytics scene, racing to get their Google Javascript code or the latest version of Site Catalyst. But when the dust settled, has this data really changed the strategic initiatives for anyone? Sure - visitors were being counted and clickstream data was being gathered, but the PR momentum responsible for this digital version of the gold rush was ultimately responsible for the siloing of analytics. Too often organizations race to implement an analytics solution by only focusing on the what's, but not the how's of digital intelligence, such as "How…..:

• will this data be presented to the organization?
• will this data be integrated within the organization?
• will ROI be determined?
• will this platform be maintained?

The "how's" aren't digital or web-centric questions - they're business questions, and they're important. So before getting too excited that Google Analytics is now offering free accounts, figure out the how's of digital intelligence in your organization so you can keep your analytics out of the silo of death.

Earlier this month Maven Networks partnered with WebTrends to create "the most comprehensive online video analytics offering in the broadband industry". This is great news - more things to hook in to analytics platforms and more data that will never make it out of the analytics silo of death. Not that we're jaded, or anything. WebTrends has their work cut out for them. Sure, they have the backing of the big shot, but just because everyone and their mother has heard about WT, market share isn't a shoe-in. They have an established user base, but are these the ones that are going to be using video as a communications/marketing/advertising strategy?

If dominating the search engine landscape weren't enough, more rumblings are happening in the digital world about the new Google mobile phone. Is Google's entrance into the mobile market (i.e. OS and/or hardware) a foregone conclusion, or another internet rumor? Since there have been no MNVO papers filed with the FCC or announcements for a mobile hardware partner it would suggest that this little nugget could be chalked up to an overzealous exec looking to cement their place in Internet folklore. But, if it's true, it's unlikely that the major telco's have anything to worry about. They're too busy trying to spend money, lay off workers, and satisfy unhappy companies by upgrading their 3g networks. Yet, it's not too far of a stretch to see how, if it were true, this fits into a long term strategy of Google untying itself from paid search revenues. Just take a look at their slow but steady diversification of service offerings: Gmail, Blogger, Reader, YouTube, Writely, Urchin, JotSpot…the list is impressive. In lay-person's terms, these services roughly translate to: Email, Blogging, RSS, Video, Productivity (Office Apps), Analytics, and Collaboration. The only one missing from that list? Mobile. Last time we checked, these were all on the lists of major software vendors as being keys to empowering individuals and/or businesses to be more productive and communicate more effectively. Not only that, but getting them all to work together and play nice (software convergence) is, most of the time, costly, time consuming, and confusing. And Google's mission of making information available to everyone fits oh-so-well with the idea of a mobile device or platform. If the rumors are true the company that has the most to lose is Microsoft. Specifically, the part of Microsoft that is responsible for revenues from small to mid-sized businesses. SMB's have long been touted as the backbone of the US economy. But they've also long been targeted as a major source of revenue for software companies. What Google has seemingly understood is that small business owners are also entrepreneurs, and if software costs are chewing in to their bottom line, they're the group that's most likely to willingly give something else a try, especially if all they need is communications, email, simple office docs, and a website. Especially if they can do it all in one place, with one company, at a fraction of the cost of what it would typically cost, and have their critical data available at all times and on all devices. For now it looks like it's just a rumor. But since Google has clearly been trying to diversify their revenue, it makes sense that they would add the final piece to the convergence and communications puzzle.