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Research from Forrester indicates that the US Web Analytics Market is on track to reach nearly a billion dollars by 2014. Forrester attributes this to a need for marketing organizations to be more accountable to businesses.

Also at play is a shift in marketing budgets' allocation for interactive channels, for the purpose of matching consumers' migration online, the firm notes. The market is expected to grow to $953 million by 2014, which would be a 17% compound annual growth rate.

"Market usage of Web analytics is in the awkward adolescence stage," says Forrester Senior Analyst John Lovett. "While the analytics market is beginning to develop, significant change is imminent, and maturity is still off in the distance."

The emergence of "highly capable," free analytics tools is changing the game, as Forrester notes, but there are still challenges:

- the need for human analysis of large amounts of data

- the ability to develop metrics

- the necessity to integrate marketing and IT

"The democratization of data is looming," he adds. "Ultimately, Web analytics will become part of a broader array of integrated services supporting marketing professionals who focus on customer intelligence."

Google is certainly doing all it can to get marketers using its Analytics service. The company is constantly releasing how-tos, rolling out integrations, and adding features. With Google being such a big part of online marketing, I'd say it has a tremendous advantage in the market based on its brand name alone.

Forrester offers a full report for the US Web Analytics Forecast - 2008-2014 (for a price). Forrester clients get it for free.