Web masters may need tracking software just to keep tabs on the number of different site-analysis tools on the market.

The broad category of tracking tools--software that records and organizes data about site traffic-- includes tools that handle performance management, collect user profile information and control or filter content.

There are tools suited for marketing managers and others geared more toward system administrators. There are services, like those marketed by Internet Profiles Corp, and NetCount, that analyze log-file data, and services that analyze reports on the log files. Freeware abounds.

All told, more than 30 vendors are crowding the field of commercially available products.

In the realm of off-the-shelf solutions, a number of commercial options exist for those who wish to track their own data and design customized analyses. Variations exist as to different platforms, the type of reports offered and whether a database is part of the solution.

Bien Logic, Everware, Group Cortex, Interse, net.Genesis and Open Market, Inc. are among the companies pitching off-the-shelf products. And at least one competitor, Softbank-funded Andromedia, plans to enter the market this month.

Choosing the right tool from this bunch may depend on the type of information sought and who is seeking it, said Clare Price, research for the Gartner Group. A marketing manager might need different information, such as user profiles, than a site administrator, who might want to keep track of error messages.

No matter who is using a tracking solution, limits do exist on the type of information that can be collected. Technological barriers created by online services' gateways and the caching issues associated with offline browsers mean that absolute certainty about who is surfing a site is virtually impossible.

One large barrier is that a good chunk of users are accessing the Net through consumer online services like America Online and Compu$erve, which do not assign unique IP addresses to each user. So to traffic monitors it appears that one person is on the other end instead of millions.

Just about all the tracking software companies are opening up dialogs with these services.

Meanwhile, anonymous electronic certificates offer another possible avenue for addressing the identity crisis that tracking tools, by profiling the Internet users, try to manage.

Andromedia, a new entrant into this field with $1.2 million in venture backing from Softbank, Draper Richards and MSIS (a diversified investment company in San Jose, Calif.), is among the companies talking with VeriSign, Inc. about striking a deal on using the firm's digital certificate technology, which would identify users.

A relatively late arrival won't hamper Andromedia's efforts to win over the tracking tools market, said Kent Godfrey, president and CEO of Andromedia, a Walnut Creek, Calif-based firm that plans to launch its tracking software later this month. The new product is called the Aria Web Recording and Reporting System.

"Nobody has established a leadership position here," Godfrey said.

Interse president Terry Myerson said more than 1,000 customers use its MarketFocus software, which is sold in standard and developer versions by the Sunnyvale, Calif., company. In Cambridge, Mass., net.Genesis president Rajat Bhargava will announce this week that the company will begin offering a desktop version along with its net.Analysis 1.0 software.

"These are important tools," said Ted Julian, research manager for Internet.commerce at International Data Corp., Framingham, Mass. "It's amazing that these are relatively young and small vendors that are providing them."

And with a multitude of freeware options, vendors are making their products stand out by differentiating on business models, Julian said. Some off-the-shelf products target those who seek the information from an advertising perspective, while others pursue purchases from IS executives or Web masters.

"It's a tool that anybody who's putting up a Web site is going to want to have," independent of whether the site contains advertising or handles transactions, Julian said. "As the Web server market grows, so should this one."

Indeed, Open Market Inc., Boston, has added Web Reporter 2.0 to its server offerings.

Julian, who intends to prepare a report on the tracking-software market, said people are willing to buy tracking tools despite the number of shareware options because the want ease of use and support.

"It's as much a visualization of the information as it is getting the data that's the value-add," Julian said.