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MSN adCenter clients should see a new tool to handle their analytics needs once Microsoft rolls out its product this summer.

Microsoft Gatineau Plots Against Google Analytics

A beta version of Microsoft's analytics product, dubbed 'Gatineau', has gained some attention as a few leaked details about it led to some online confirmation from a Microsoft staffer.

Dave Naylor plugged some screenshots from the in-alpha Gatineau on his blog. He's projecting a positive response for Gatineau once Microsoft loosens the chains a bit:

Google Analytics is pretty darn good and the interface is rocking, But Microsoft is going to give you reports and visualisations that you haven’t seen before and data about you visitors like age and gender, seriously you just can’t get that data in any other service.

Ian Thomas works with Microsoft's Digital Advertising Solutions group. He's at the helm of Gatineau, and has previous experience with analytics as co-founder of WebAbacus.

Thomas posted in the wake of Naylor's disclosure about Gatineau. He gave some additional details along with confirming a late summer beta test:

One of the reasons we wanted to wait for our own announcement around the beta functionality is because we wanted to explain where we get our demographic data from. Beta 1 will include the ability to segment data by both age and gender buckets, so you can get more of an idea of what kind of visitors you have.

Questions are already being asked on Dave's blog about where we get this data from; the answer is that we do get this information from users' Live ID (formerly known as Microsoft Passport) profiles, but I would stress that we get this information anonymously, and there is no use of PII (Personally Identifiable Information, such as name or e-mail address) in the product.

Unless Microsoft's legal eagles put up a roadblock, Thomas should be able to post more about Gatineau soon.