Webtrends Apps: Webtrends picks up WYSIWYG Facebook and iPhone app tool Transpond

When you think of Webtrends, you likely think of Web analytics. And that’s no surprise. The Portland-based company has been a leader in the world of Web analytics for more than a decade.

But it’s not highly likely you think of social or mobile apps. Well, until today. Meet Webtrends Apps, the results of acquiring San Francisco based Transpond.

That’s right. Webtrends has picked up another company. And this time, it’s a little off the beaten path of what we’ve expected from Webtrends in the past.

So what does the company they snagged do? Well, they provide a WYSIWYG editor that allows practically anyone to develop and deploy applications for Facebook, iPhone, iPad, Android, Nokia, and the mobile web.

Great. But why would Webtrends be interested in this? Because Webtrends sees where the Web is going. And they’ve got a pretty good hunch that people these days may be—just maybe—spending some time in social networks and on their mobile devices.

I know. Call them crazy.

So by buying a company that allows people to easily build social and mobile apps AND baking Webtrends analytics into the application platform, Webtrends suddenly has the ability to track more relevant activity. And in so tracking that activity they gain the ability to allow Webtrends’ users to divine more insights about their customers.

Bundled with their Facebook apps is a Facebook analytics tool Webtrends released in February that improves on deficiencies of Facebook’s native Insights. It allows clients to see up to date statistics about custom Page tabs and applications such as time on site and what content was shared, as well as integrate Facebook analytics into their web-wide analytics solution.

Webtrends saw brands from all industries looking to make custom apps, but found existing developers to be too slow, complicated, and overworked. The acquisition of Transpond makes Webtrends a good start-to-finish solution for companies trying to break into Facebook or other app platforms. While the apps themselves are relatively basic, the ability to create, publish, and track them with just one set of tools offers simplicity those new to the app scene will appreciate.

That’s a lot of analytics. From a lot of different sources. What’s more, it’s something for which many folks have been clamoring.

What kinds of folks? Marketing folks, of course. Especially marketing folks who are still busy watching data sources that don’t give them a clear indication of what their users are doing.

Despite the two year trend of social dominance, marketing dollars are not right sizing. Search, email, & website command 77% of the budget today. That makes the current allocation is a ratio of dollars to user time spent is 6.5:1 The allocation for social is 0.5:1. Mobile doesn’t even show up as a category. If businesses spent a ratio of 6.5:1 on social it would command 150% of the budget. Assuming social is as effective as search, email, & website, then a ratio of 3:1 or 2:1 on search, email, website, social and mobile would right size the budget.

Interesting. Suddenly, acquiring a WYSIWYG app company doesn’t seem so off kilter after all.

What’s more, while this move is important for Webtrends, it also proves to be an important move for Justin Kistner—known in the Portland tech startup community as the creator of Beer and Blog—who works for Webtrends full time. With the acquisition, Justin moves into the role of social media product manager.

And that could mean some pretty cool things for him. And for Webtrends.

Published by Rick Turoczy

More than mildly obsessed with the Portland startup community. Founder and editor at Silicon Florist. Cofounder and general manager at PIE. Follow me on Twitter: @turoczy View all posts by Rick Turoczy