Today I am going to write about an excellent application, which I discovered yesterday. The main reason why I hated checking out my Google Analytics reports was that I hated logging in to my Analytics account. My personal Google account is different from the one I use for website related uses, including Adsense, Sitemaps and Analytics. Whenever I try to check my personal mails and Analytics account together, I get logged out from the former. That was when I discovered Google Analytics Reporting Suite based on Adobe Integrated Runtime (Previosly Apollo), developed by Nico.

Google Analytics Reporting suite is a desktop application based on AIR, which allows you to access your Google Analytics Reports directly from your desktop. GARS provides a much better interface compared to the original web application. It also implements almost all the features provided by the web application.

The program allows you to manage multiple profiles from different Google Accounts directly from the program. The login credetials will be saved on your computer so that you don’t have to re-login every time you check your reports.

Here is a screencast of the previous version

Highlighted features of GARS (from AboutNico.be)

• Easy profile selection and account management »
• Use multiple profiles from different Analytics accounts »
• All visitors, traffic and content reports available »
• Tabbed interface to easily switch between reports »
• Data drilldown, goal values, data segmentation »
• Animated, interactive graphs »
• Advanced data grids with filtering and paging »
• Switch between interactive reports or PDF reports »
• Site overlay view »
• Exports to PDF, Excel and XML »

The program is still in its beta stage with beta 2 released on October 5th. I recommend everyone  to tryout the program and provide feedback to Nico, so that it can be improved further. Version 1.0 of the reporting suite is expected to be released by early 2008. A sneak peak of Google Analytics AIR 1.0 was provided and the new version is much prettier.

Google does not provide an official API to access Google Analytics data by external programs. Fortunately, programmers have developed unofficial APIs[1, 2] for doing the same, even though Google is remaining silent on the legality of using it. Google Analytics Reporting Suite is also based on an unofficial API developed by Nico, by studying the working of the web application for months. Fortunately, both Google and Adobe extended support to Nico for further developing the application. GARS is included in Adobe’s Showcase program and Google has offered assistance in making the program more secure.

Now that I have Google Analytics Reporting Suite installed, I now check my Google Analytics reports 4 - 5 times a day. Thank you Nico. 

Downloads 

• Google Analytics Reporting Suite
• Adobe Integrated Runtime

After reading on how to get free Yahoo Publiser Network (YPN) vouchers at JohnCow.com, I decided to try my luck. And I found some good free vouchers. I don’t have any use of them.

• Free Assisted Setup
• Free Assisted Setup
• $100 Self Serve Credit
• $100 Self Serve Credit
• $75 Self Serve Credit
• $75 Self Serve Credit

You can create more vouchers by replacing the last 4 digits (USXXXX) of the final url with other random digits.

Hope this helps. And thank JC for giving away the idea for free.

There are many services out there that provide free sms sending options. But the problem with most of the services are that they are limited to a particular region or a handfull of carriers. Today I am going to introduce you to a service that has no limitation. You can send as many messages as you want. The service is from Callwave. They provide a number of free sms sending widgets which you can add to your Google homepage (iGoogle), Yahoo Widgets, Mac Dashboard or Vista sidebar. Once the widget is added, you have to register for a free Callwave account. Which can be done from the widget itself. You will need a valid mobile number capable of accepting SMS for registering, because you will be sent an activation number to the provided phone number. You can use the same account with all the above widgets. Further, you can access an archive of all your sent messages at your Account Page.

They also provide free Visual Voicemail service. If you fail to answer a received call, the call automatically gets forwarded to Callwave. Callwave records the call and shows it in your widget, from where you can access it. The messages can also be accessed from any mobile phone too. Unfortunately, the service is currently limited to U.S. Hopefully they will expand it to other countries too.