Why the Real-Time Web Matters in Real Life
You know what? Why is everyone treating “real-time” as if it’s something special? It’s not. It’s how I live my life, and I’m willing to put money on the fact that you do too.
When I’m talking to a friend face-to-face I don’t say something and then wait for an hour (or a day) for a response. The conversation happens as a steady flow. If you really think about it, the world would come to a crushing halt if everything happened at the “speed of the Web”.
That is so “Web 2.0″ isn’t it? Didn’t IBM have a commercial comparing faxes to emails or something? Well, guess what. The reason Woopra exists is that for at least a few of us, the Web sucked and everything was way, way too slow.
Now, it’s not like I’m asking anything to “speed up”. I don’t want to watch videos in double-time or anything. But I think that real-time equates to just-in-time, and frankly it’s the speed I’m comfortable with.
The Real-Time Web is No Different Than Real Life
With a flood of information coming at us, the only decisions we need to make are what to ignore and what to pay attention to. Kind of like driving your car. Don’t pay attention to the stationary trees lining the street, do pay attention to the pedestrians.
The real-time Web offers those who participate in it a decisive advantage – speed. The faster you are able to gather the information, the faster you are able to process and react to it. This is precisely the operating principal behind Woopra. Deliver instantaneous information, and provide tools that allow you to take action on it.
All real-time Web tools should have this as a goal, but I can really only speak to ours. Let me provide a few examples of how everyone can take advantage of first-mover status with Woopra.
Real-Time Examples
- Faster Advertising Decisions: Marketing experts managing advertising budgets for Google AdSense or other pay-per-click campaigns can make much faster decisions and tweak their ad purchases by launching a new campaign and then watching the results live in Woopra. We all know that small changes in the language of an ad can result in huge conversion improvements, so real-time availability compresses the “Test / Measure” cycle potentially resulting in a savings of hundreds or thousands of dollars per campaign.
- Tracking Return Customers: Repeat visitors, especially those with repeat usage patterns, can clue us in to a users interest in a product or service. But you can’t keep an eye on every visitor that comes to the site, so Woopra provides instant notification tools to alert you. For example, Woopra’s Event Notification feature will tell you when a repeat visitor downloads a whitepaper, or is on a “Contact Us” form. This allows you to focus attention on high probability opportunities – or even push a chat to them live.
LiveTrend Tracking: Sites that depend on delivering news or entertainment content compete to provide the most compelling stories to capture visitors. A real-time flow of search engine keywords lets a Webmaster know what specific content visitors are seeking so they can fill in the gaps by providing relevant articles which will satisfy those visitors and help decrease bounce rates and increase conversions and page views.- Customized
Real-TimeFeedback: If you’re running a high volume website and you’re not taking advantage of a system that can provide real-time tracking and automated event triggering, you will soon be chasing your competition. The Woopra API can be used to take advantage of these capabilities so you can generally kick your competition’s ass instead. Real-TimeVisitor Information and Support: For Retail operations, real-time visitor tracking allows you to magically understand what clients are looking for. Imagine being able to observe behaviour, just like in a brick and mortar store! Now, imagine being able to help customers navigate the site and – when click to chat is available (as is the case with Woopra) – jump in to answer a question, assist with navigation or help complete a transaction – all of which result in increased sales.
Real-Time is Here, Now
Life comes at you in real-time, so business tools should reflect that.
Real-time anything means absolutely nothing without a well planned and executed response to the event you are measuring.
This game is so new, no one knows how responses will evolve over time, even though figuring that out is what is most important now.
Yes, its scary to imagine a flood of data coming at you that requires instant action. So, many people will choose to ignore it and focus on what’s comfortable – the past. But ignore it at your own peril, because the Real-Time Web is here.
Now.
And this train waits for no one.
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Woopra, Woopra Members. Woopra Members said: Woopra CEO @johnpoz thoughts on Real-Time Web http://is.gd/4itMS for @RWW Real Time Summit #rtws [...]
Good stuff, John. Excited your joining us at the Real-Time Web Summit!
Wouldn’t miss it Marshall. Looking forward to meeting you guys in a couple days.
John P.
Well said. Real time is the most natural thing. Maybe we got so used to the way web is and accepted its limitations. Now that those limitations are fading away, real time looks like a new “feature” while its just the way things are.
John let me know when you want to provide real-time analytics for Echo :)
[...] Go get em John… You know what? Why is everyone treating “real-time” as if it’s something special? It’s not. It’s how I live my life, and I’m willing to put money on the fact that you do too. [...]
Great article John, I like how you compare “real life” with “web 2.0″ as if it’s not at all a bit geeky to do that, hehe.
Woopra has certainly come a long way since I joined almost one and a half years ago – looking good.
[...] already about the benefits of real-time analytics! Woopra’s CEO John Pozadzides wrote “Why the Real-Time Web Matters in Real Life” which answers this question, [...]
In real-life, person to person interactions are initiated in a mutually accepted fashion – eye-to-eye contact, light-hearted chatter while standing in line, and common life situations (waiting for a bus, sharing a cab ride, or sitting next to each other on a plane) … both parties agree to participate and interact with the other. I’m not so sure pushing a chat to a person who comes to browse a website isn’t bordering on an intrusion… I would be a bit taken-aback by someone initiating a chat with me as I browse a website – as though s/he was there to watch my every movement and menu click… I’m not so sure that people who do much of their shopping and researching online would want their anonymity/privacy stripped away so abruptly… by an intruder. How does a researcher confirm that the site hasn’t been hacked and the intruder is indeed an employee of the site upon which s/he sits?
I understand my actions are tracked quite intensively everywhere I go online. That is a far cry from having someone attempt to interact with me at every turn without my prior knowledge or acceptance. It is one thing to have a chat with a live person available, but again, entirely a different matter to have someone attempt to communicate with me as I browse or research any product or website.
I would probably not return to any site that employed such an intrusive tactic.
Perhaps I don’t know enough about Woopra…
I do know that when I go searching for information, it’s up to me to determine what is significant and what is not… I never depend on a third, uninterested party to pare down the final choices for me. My decisions are made by me with all my concerns, issues, and preferences included. I certainly don’t want people barging in uninvited to ask me what I’m looking for or can they help me find something … it might be much like having the librarian follow each patron around the library to see if s/he can help in any way and watch over the patrons’ shoulders to see what they are up to…
So, although Woopra might be more like real-life and real-time … at a certain point, it begins to get creepy, and perhaps unwelcomed as well. Just my two cents… Until that time… Earl J.
I have to admit I always thought google analytics was real time until I started using woopra! It is a breath of fresh air to be able to see, in real time, who is vititing my site, where they came from, and where they go afterwards.
Great stuff Woopra, if only other companies could produce tools that are actually as helpful as they claim to be!
Faster Advertising Decisions: Marketing experts managing advertising budgets for Google AdSense or other pay-per-click campaigns can make much faster decisions and tweak their ad purchases by launching a new campaign and then watching the results live in Woopra. We all know that small changes in the language of an ad can result in huge conversion improvements, so real-time availability compresses the “Test / Measure” cycle potentially resulting in a savings of hundreds or thousands of dollars per campaign.
GREAT POINT. I”M KEENLY AWAITING TO BE ABLE TO DO THIS IN WOOPRA…. WHEN WILL CONVERSION TRACKING BE “LIVE” IN WOOPRA???
We are working on our top-secret ecommerce and conversion tracking project. Right now, you can track conversions through a variety of ways right now, but our new upcoming feature will be coming out soon. Stay tuned for news.
[...] If the users are doing more, however, you can follow each step they take, also if they click on an outgoing link too. It’s pretty cool and it gives you the option to “modify on the fly”. Say you have a campaign going on or something and you can see that users are clicking through to another page after arriving at your site, instead of doing what you actually wanted them to do. You can then change your site accordingly and optimize almost instantly. Sure, you can see that with Google Analytics too, but you won’t be able to correct it instantly. Woopra is real-time, just like your life! [...]
[...] the advantage of using real-time analytics unless you were making real-time changes (here’s Woopra’s take on real-time analytics), and I challenged myself to use these tools together to do something [...]
Very true John…and that’s why I, and I’m sure others, are waiting eagerly to hear what the difference between limited and full segmentation is….I can’t choose a package before then. But I know you will announce it as soon as you can!
Dilip