Pingdom has recently released a report indicating that 40% of the sites they registered as using Google Analytics were still using the old urchin.js code. That’s 20% of the top 10,000 sites on the internet that they tested, putting it another way.
Pingdom pose a couple of questions: The question is, are the owners of these sites aware that urchin.js won’t be around forever? Are they aware that they are using a legacy script that is no longer being maintained?
I think the answer to the first question is no, and the second probably yes.
The problem is, as ReadWriteWeb states, that they could find no official announcement from Google on their ongoing plans to keep the older code functional, all the Google documentation indicated that switching (at least when it was announced a year ago on the Google Analytics Blog) was optional.
But Julien Coquet from LBi, a Google Analytics Authorized Consultant, told Pingdom that they are hearing that urchin.js may be discontinued this summer. Which is a very different message.
On the web, as with many other things in life, the mantra ‘if it ain’t broke don’t fix it’ often applies, which I think is why people have not updated their code, even if the new version is faster and better. Up until now, we’ve generally just made sure that the new code is implemented at an appropriate point (like a site redesign). But in the light of the new information, I will be checking on the sites that I manage the SEO for to see which version of the code they are using, and let them know that they may need to change it.
Like ReadWriteWeb, I don’t believe that Google will just let people’s Analytics go blank, they are likely to start on a push to get people to change at least a few months in advance of a switch off.
UPDATE: Google’s response on the Analytics blog
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