Back in 2006, Microsoft bought a company named DeepMetrix that offered web site traffic analysis tools and services. After being absorbed by Microsoft, DeepMetrix no longer offered those products and services. However, Microsoft was supposed to be rolling similar features into a great new product named adCenter Analytics. Not anymore.There must be a pithy name for the "big company buys little company and does nothing more than kill its successful products" phenomenon. If there isn't, there should be. Microsoft made some noise this time about learning lessons that will be rolled into future products and services, but the end result is that the DeepMetrix products and their customers are now relegated to the dustbin of history.

I used DeepMetrix about five years ago back when it was called LiveStats; it had pretty good capabilities for the time but the company I was working for wanted more. Ultimately we ended up with Urchin's log analysis software, which was bought by Google shortly thereafter. The difference between Google's acquisition of Urchin and Microsoft's absorption of DeepMetrix is quite a contrast. Google used Urchin to build the successful Google Analytics service, but also (after quite a delay) shipped version 6.0 of the Urchin log analysis software.

I have to wonder if Microsoft ever really had a coherent plan for adCenter Analytics. It seems like it was to some extent an us-too move; since Google had scarfed up Urchin in 2005, perhaps Microsoft felt compelled to get in on the game as well. The difference is that Google has already created, shipped, and refined Google Analytics (and Urchin) whereas Microsoft never shipped its own product or delivered a service.