Amazon Silk, the Beginning of the End for Beacon Tracking?

In one of my former posts I talked about how I fell in love with Tealeaf Technology (yes, I work for them now). There were several reasons that the CEM model of data collection and analyses appealed to me. But one thing that I felt strongly about is that the “classic” model of data collection with JavaScript and beacons will have an end. At some point some technology would disrupt the classic “request from browser/response from server” model. I felt strongly that bandwidth increases and trouble from hackers would culminate into a model where most of the processing is done on servers and the browser lightens significantly into more of a terminal than an application. If so, potentially the only choice left for measurement would be done directly on the servers themselves. This “SaaS” model for web analytics could end and morph into something else (most likely at the data center itself). I also happen to think that Tealeaf is heads and shoulders ahead of everyone else when it comes to measurement and customer analyses at the data center level.

How will Silk change everything?

Bezos with Silk Browser

Take heed, everyone is up in arms about the privacy implications of Silk. But the performance improvements and potential protection from Malware will probably win out in the end. Let’s consider the implications.

With Amazon’s Silk browser rather than requesting a web page directly from a web server, all requests are made to Amazon’s Elastic Computer Cloud (EC2). It caches content and requests content from the server housing the web page. Amazon’s EC2 will then determine the best way to serve the web page to the browser. That means the page could potentially be built on Amazon’s servers and delivered any way they see fit. That means images are less wieldy and JavaScript could be pre-built and delivered post-built. So, any 3^rd party tracking could be requested from the server and not the browser and it is up to Amazon how that data is delivered.

At first, images will most likely be cached, but as time goes on, by determining which content is dynamic and which content is static, most static content will be aggregated. Cookies may move from the browser to the server. And eventually the browser will die and just become a terminal. The request/response that builds a Document Object Model (DOM) for the page would soon morph because it is now about server to server communications. Most likely it will mean most pages start out static and use a server-to-server AJAX type request to update the requested page.

And, what is to stop the other data centers from doing the same? If this model takes off, soon all requests will be built around a terminal system and everything transfers from server to server. People will stop asking, “Which browser do you use?” and instead ask, “Which Aggregation Center do you use?”.

At this point, it means that the aggregators like Amazon will be at the center of determining which data comes in and which data goes out. 3^rd party data collectors are then dependent on these aggregators. If you are collecting web data at your own data servers, you do have access to the dynamic content sent out and hopefully some kind of request for change to static content every time the user requests the static content. Worst case scenario, Amazon and aggregators close the world to the data collection from their system due to an increased desire for privacy. Then we all move back to the data center for our data collection needs. They have every right to ensure their consumers with the statement “we are protecting your privacy, companies are still able to optimize based on data requested directly from their data centers”. It would actually be a good move for them if privacy was a real concern. Many spammers and hackers do use beacons to mark users/computers for nefarious purposes.

Anyway, I’m actually looking forward to a quicker browsing experience, with the potential of protection from hackers and maybe even an increase in privacy (depending on how Amazon wants to approach it). Go ahead Amazon, you’ll get the web tracking companies angry, but remember, they can still collect directly from the data center.

What do you think? Do you think Amazon would restrict data collection for beacon-based data-collection companies and would there be an exodus to the data center? Or do you think a company like Amazon would keep it open in the name of web optimization?

Learn from Measurement to Accelerate Innovation

At a client I was surprised by one of the concerns they have with measuring web traffic in general. Their concern is not with technology, manpower or budget, the concern is with culture. Their culture is highly innovative and creative and there are hints of resistance to web measurement. This has created concerns that web measurement will not be fully embraced. I was actually a bit surprised by this. I see measurement and innovation, done well, as the next innovation focused disruptor. One of my favorite subjects during my MBA was innovation; culture was always stressed as important for enabling innovation and implementing strategy. Of course, changing culture is akin to turning a large cruise liner. It is a large effort that takes a lot of time. The more I thought about this client, the more I could see the reasons for the resistance. Organization and innovation are polar opposites. The dark side of innovation is free movement, but utter chaos. The dark side of organization is complete organization with no movement. These two sides need each other to operate properly, but leaning to one side or the other depends on the state of the market. Anything with the web, mobile, cloud, etc. as a market needs to lean heavily to the innovative side. Otherwise, as we continue to see in this ever changing world, companies focused on organization bite the dust. My hope is that this client can stop seeing web measurement as another form of measurement and accountability, but as a tool for learning.

We’ve all heard the mantras, “You don’t know what you can’t measure”, “If you can’t measure it, you can’t improve it”, etc. These are valid statements that are more on the organization side (needed to take advantage of innovation). They are like the brakes on a car. If you drive a car without brakes how fast are you really going to drive? But any innovative company should be concerned, if these brakes are misused; they freeze up, the car stops moving and the competition passes by. So, yes, there is a dark side to measurement. Measurement is organization, plain and simple. If measurement is used as a way to just show reports and ensure some incremental improvement to the status quo, there is reason for concern. If reports are used in this way the company is merely policing the status quo. The big question should always be, “Am I Learning Something?”. If there is no learning there is no way to challenge the status quo which is necessary for small to big innovations. If measurement is used as a learning tool, it can empower innovation and further accelerate innovation. If used as a learning tool the incremental and LARGE improvements will come because you know your market and your customers. That is what I love about Tealeaf’s set of tools. Yes, you can create some great reports and measure incremental improvements, but the most powerful piece is understanding the customer experience. This puts a real story behind the numbers and empowers innovation. Being able to drill in to individual sessions based on abandonments, voice-of-customer, time-to-complete, customer-struggle, etc. moves it from numbers on a report to a learning experience. My hope here is that eventually this company I am working with will see Tealeaf as an accelerator to innovation and not just another reporting tool. In that way, turning that cruise-liner of a culture doesn’t need to happen. Innovation can move forward accelerated with customer experience learning.