Two startups next week will unveil World Wide Web site
tracking and monitoring software that offers customization and real-time
access.
Andromedia Inc.'s Aria World Wide Web Recording and Reporting
Systems, due to ship next month, enables administrators to capture detailed
information about their Web server and deliver statistics to users.
WebThreads, based in Vienna, Va., will ship its namesake
product, which can also capture information about visitors to a Web site.
WebThreads also enables site managers to track in real time where a user
is traveling within a site, and to customize the Web site on the fly.
Andromedia's Aria components bypass traditional Web server
log files. Aria.monitor replaces the log file, turning incoming information
into C++ objects that can be fed to Aria.recorder. It in turn passes the
object to Aria.API and Aria.store; which writ the objects to disk and store
them in the cache memory for real-time access, respectively.
Aria.API processes collected objects into six categories,
such as domain or content information. Administrators can add categories
as well. Aria.reporter taps Aria.store to generate the reports and to deliver
the information to users through a Web browser, said officials.
WebThreads allows administrators to customize a Web site
on the fly based on the information collected about a specific user.
WebThreads issues a user a Thread ID and attaches itself
to a user's browser. From there, WebThreads, which runs as a Common Gateway
Interface program, tracks the movements of the specific users to determine
areas of interest and customize the site.
For example, after a user clocks three times on hyperlinks
about a specific topic, a WebThreads script would automatically change
the site to provide him or her with more targeted information.
Pricing for the Aria system starts at $1,800; pricing
for WebThreads starts at $895.