Google Analytics: Now Scaling, Amazing, still Free

While I am not sure they have finished scaling the response processing, the user application for Analytics is now quite responsive, and is just really a cool web app. Here's my question- why no GoogleMaps integration?!? Every twobit js hacker with a dot to plot is doing gMaps integration, and these guys have a doinky flash map that zooms in on everything (not just the map, the label text gets massive too).



Still, better than I had last week, which was nothing. I wonder about this whole "free stuff" strategy though. It seems like Microsoft used to do the same thing, and ended up getting a really bad name for putting little companies out of business. I guess we can be glad that Google at least buys one of the little companies before it makes the products free, but the competitors are going to be hurting. The other problem with free is that implies that the product has no value, or is annoying (adware). Somehow Google have made adware palatable by limiting it's reach. Reminds me of the anchor reading the sponsors' messages on NPR compared to the other stations where the commercials blare at 150% of the normal volume with some jerk shouting.