Google launch Google Analytics, a free service. The blurb says: "Google Analytics has all the features you'd expect from a high-end analytics offering. It also provides tightly integrated AdWords support, so you can view AdWords ROI metrics without having to import cost data or add keyword tracking codes."

Matt Cutts notes "Blackhat SEOs may be leery of using Google for analytics, but regular site owners should be reassured".

Heh. Don't forget that the collective data set will be extremely valuable to Google, and the service has tight integration with Adwords. Webmasters may be a little wary of giving away conversion data to an advertising provider, for example. However, Danny Sullivan notes: "Worried Google will use your data or the data overall to better understand how much you are willing to pay for ads, based on conversions. Google said that's definitely not done, nor are there any plans to do that", but I'm not quite sure where Danny got that from as I haven't found it in the documentation. Yet. Did this come directly from Google, Danny?

It's a wonder other search engines haven't done this already.

I'm off to test it out....