Posted: November 4, 2009/Under: Internet/By: My Digital Life Editorial Team

Google Analytics uses JavaScript-based tracking code to measure, collect, analyze, report and generate detailed statistics and data about the visitors to a website. The JavaScript-based web tracking works well when the web pages are loading in modern desktop-based web browsers. However, when it comes to mobile phone or PDA device, Google Analytics may fail to track visitors and page views properly.

The client-side JavaScript used by Google Analytics needs a runtime environment with JavaScript engine implementation, which interprets JavaScript source code and executes the script accordingly. Unfortunately, not all web browsers installed on mobile phones or smartphones support JavaScript. Mostly, only high-end smart phones or PDAs with modern mobile browser (microbrowser or minibrowser), as listed in examples below, can allow Google Analytics tracking, and even so, some traffic may be missed.

iPhone [Safari] iPod Touch [Safari] SymbianOS [Safari] iPhone [Mozilla] Samsung-SGH-I607, Samsung-SGH-I617, HTC-8900, HTC-8500, HTC-8100, HTC_TyTN, Palm750 [Windows Mobile IEMobile] SymbianOS [Opera] HTCS620 [Windows Mobile Mozilla]

Finally, Google Analytics are adding support for mobile tracking to track mobile websites, mobile apps and web-enabled mobile devices, including both high end and non-javascript enabled phones. With Google Analytics for Mobile, user can track traffic to mobile websites from all web-enabled devices, whether or not the device runs JavaScript.

In order to achieve universal tracking of mobile devices or PDAs, marketeers or webmasters have to add a server side code snippet to mobile website. For the start, Google Analytics for Mobile is supporting PHP, Perl, JSP and ASPX (ASP.Net) sites. Google Analytics for Mobile also can track user’s engagement with iPhone and Android mobile application.

Google Analytics is going to add a new Mobile reports in the Visitors section so that users can see breakout data on mobile devices and carriers.

Users who interested to use Google Analytics to track mobile sites or apps can download the code snippet with instructions from http://www.google.com/analytics/googleanalyticsformobile.zip.

Note that Google Analytics for Mobile is still in beta. Webmasters or bloggers have to insert a code snippet to the very top of each web page they wish to track (above the opening <html> tag), append another tracking code snippet to the bottom of each web page they wish to track, just before the </html> tag, and copy ga.jps, ga.php, ga.pl or ga.aspx to the root folder of the website (“/”).

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