Re_Invigorate Isn't a Service Worth Paying for Yet
I've been a re_Invigorate analytics user since its creator, Sean, started it with the intent of buying a scooter. That was a really long time ago. If I remember correctly that was around 2002/2003 or so and at the time there was NOTHING like it. It was incredible. Frankly, It still is! And It's gotten better! To me, Google Analytics can't touch it. Mint can't touch it. No other analytics service can touch it.
I freaking love re_Invigorate.
Seriously, if Mint can sell for 30 dollars then certainly re_Invigorate should charge, right?
Wrong.
At least not until it fixes one two core problems.
First, if you're going to charge for analytics, it's important to asure as few things as possible can corrupt the data. Personally I would start with locking down statistics on a domain by domain basis.
What do I mean? Maybe an example will help.
Say you write jQuery plug-ins (I do). And let's say people actually use those plug-ins (they do). And let's say you want to track the traffic going to the plug-in demo pages (I do). And let's say people view source (they do) maybe copy that source (they do) and for arguments sake say they even copy the re_invigorate code assuming it's a requirement for the plug-in (they sure do).
What's the problem you ask?
Here is the problem. When other people copy my re_invigorate code and include it in their source code then launch it live on their domains - their web traffic stats corrupt my web traffic stats. Everything from referrers, to actual traffic, to geospatial data...everything.
Which leads me to the second reason why re_Invigorate is not ready to be a paid service: It's been two weeks and I can't get an answer from them about this problem on their GetSatisfaction support page. If it's a paid service I will expect a certain level of customer support. And I can't pay for an analytics service that doesn't give me accurate data (duh).
Here is the GetSatisfaction ticket with no answer.
I can't say enough how much I love re_Invigorate. Frankly I would pay more than what they're asking. I realize I am in the minority of users that would actually have their source code copied but that shouldn't matter. The data is what makes the service valuable. If the data isn't right it's worthless. Which is why I am now using Mint and missing re_Invigorate terribly.
