Yahoo! Web Analytics has just gone into private beta, so it will probably be early next year until it’s open for everyone to sign-up. However, the initial reaction of those who have used it seems positive.

Yahoo! have built on the IndexTools system, which they bought in April 2008. Changes they have made include a redesigned website, increased scalability and compliance, single sign-on and integration with your Yahoo! account. The new dashboard has also received a rather beautiful makeover:

Some of the features are:

• Customisable dashboards
• Custom goals, custom reporting and custom fields
• Multiple dashboards for various individuals
• Tracking of marketing campaigns
• Real-time segmentation and cost analysis
• Merchandise reporting and comparative reporting
• Scenario analysis and advanced path analysis
• Marketing workflow management

Yahoo! Web Analytics is certainly one to watch. I, for one, will be very interested to see how it stacks up against the excellent Google Analytics, which I recommend in my book.