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.