Now Google Analytics may have some competition on its hands, and to make matters worse, the competitor is Google itself. Google recently released the new Google Urchin into public beta.

Urchin was created for companies that have content behind a security firewall or have other restrictions that do not allow them to use Google Analytics. With Urchin, you can install and manage the software on your own servers while Google Analytics is service-hosted and maintained by Google.

While Urchin and Google Analytics have their similarities, they do have many differences. One of the biggest differences that could be even be a deciding factor for some users, is that fact that Google Analytics is free and Google Urchin is not. Urchin is being offered as a 90-day free trial, but when that period is over, Urchin will cost $2,995.

In an emailed interview, Google Analytics Group Product Marketing Manager Brett Crosby told me:

“Urchin is also useful for those who want to perform ad-hoc historical log processing, who want to store their web analytics on local servers, hosting providers wishing to provide a value-added analytics service, and those requiring third-part audits.”

Crosby also noted that Google Urchin is available in the following 9 supported languages: English, French, Italian, German, Spanish, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, and Brazilian Portuguese.

Many upgrades have been added to the new Urhcin. To find out more, check out the WebProNews video entitled: “Google Urchin Examined.”

DataPortability.org is heading up a workgroup that will hopefully do just that. While many groups and companies are taking part in this effort, the recent addition of a few big name players has attracted a lot of attention.

The following companies are among those that recently joined the workgroup:

• Google
• Facebook
• Plaxo
• LinkedIn
• Flickr
• SixApart
• Twitter
• Microsoft

According to ReadWriteWeb, Mozilla is examining the idea of joining the workgroup and is expected to join.

WebProNews spoke with Chris Saad, the Co-Founder and Chairman of Data Portability. He said,

“…Data Portability Workgroup is a group of passionate individuals in various fields of expertise from bloggers, to technical experts, to legal experts, to vendors who are interested in solving the problem of creating bridges between applications, so users can ultimately share their videos, photos, documents, and friends….”

This coming together with rival companies is a big step for those involved. However, they all realize the results will benefit their own individual companies. WebProNews contacted Google and Facebook and while they were unable to interview, they did release the following statements.

"Google shares DataPortability.org’s vision of open standards, transparency, and user choice.  We’re looking forward to participating in an ongoing and important conversation about these issues." — Google Spokesperson

“We are committed to giving users control of their data on Facebook and, at the same time, safeguarding the privacy of users. Facebook joined the DataPortability Workgroup in order to actively participate in industry dialogue and to represent feedback from the Facebook community.” — Ben Ling, the Director of Product Marketing for Facebook Platform and Facebook’s Representative in the Data Portability Workgroup.

Speaking of Facebook, it is very interesting that both Robert Scoble and Plaxo have joined the workgroup considering the recent controversial issue involving the three companies.

Plaxo asked Scoble to test one of their features to see if it would export data from Facebook and then import it into Plaxo. Facebook detected the activity and kicked Robert Scoble off Facebook.

Both Data Portability and Plaxo agree that the situation brought the issue of data portability to forefront of everyone’s focus.

Plaxo’s Vice President of Marketing, John McCrea said,

“… Everyone knew that 2008 would be the year for data portability, but this situation brought the discussion to the front and center…”

To get more information on the Data Portability Workgroup, check out the WebProNews video. It takes a deeper look at the topic including interviews from Chris Saad, John McCrea, and Plaxo’s Representative in the Data Portability Workgroup, Joseph Smarr.