Very interesting, seems I need to change to the new code. Didn't even noticed it.

Nuts. I just used Google Analytics for WordPress plugin and update whenever there is an update to be had. Job done.

I think your right, 301 redirect must solve it. But it's not so much work to just change the code.

Informative post.

@Dr. Mike Wendell Unfortunately, Google changed the way the code works and the changed the functions that needs to be put into the pages as well as made it easier to read and use, this means that because they've changed the way it works it requires people to put a new piece of script into their pages and can't simply redirect people to the new one.

Someone please correct me if I'm wrong but wouldn't this be a two second fix on Google's end with a 301 redirect?

Ive been using the urchin.js script right from he beginning and check the analytics with great regularity. This change from Google is the first I've heard and, looking at the analytics page, I see nothing that indicates a new script has been issued. Perhaps that also explains why certain Google companies have also not changed? Pi.

@julien Thanks for the reply. I suspect there are many reasons and we'll never know all of them. As for me, I swapped primarily for performance reasons since I'm not on a dedicated server. I probably should've done some benchmarking to see what improvements I've gained from the lighter code, but I didn't;-)

Hello! Thanks for your report. I took your example and looked hrough the top100 german blogs and found a similar result. Out of 100 of these top100 blogs, 64 use Google Analytics and 35% of them still use the old urchin.js. Btw. its a shame that so few use good open source alternatives like Piwik, which is enough for most sites and still under heavy development and you have the data on your server and don't blast them through the internet to google :)

Was using the new version of GA, but to be honest I prefer using Firestats. It's local, does what I want and doesn't have any of the underlying privacy issues prevalent with Google.

40% of my sites use old GA, and I always forget to change it (^:

I think this is because they are not aware of the new things :)

That's because most of these codes are added by web developers for their clients, and if the client doesn't want to pay someone to update the code for them on their site, then it won't happen.

I wonder why the Google Analytics site maybe doesn't alert the person checking the statistics website to the use of old urchin.js tracking code? Heck, don't they index the content? Shouldn't they just "Know" things about us? Why aren't they scripting these things for our benefit?

@Anne IMHO this is due to a cumulation of factors - bear with me, I tend to post lengthy replies ;-) Despite Google's recent efforts, their communication around their (non-paying) applications is somewhat sub-par. Their actual communication around GA goes through their Adwords channel. GA is a 4 year old service and many people got used to the "old" urchin.js code. That alone is also a reflection of both the level of maturity and complexity of web analytics. Google democratized web analytics by making it available to just about anyone from bloggers to corporate extranets to mom-and-pop websites. Basic implementations follow a "fire and forget" type of behavior: very few users actually worry about updating/upgrading their code - after all, it's Google awesomeness: it just works!! ;-) Why worry about a couple lines of code if the reports work, right? To be fair, there are quite a few application plug-ins for blogs, forums, CMS and eCommerce platforms that were written with urchin.js code in mind and that never got a much needed upgrade to ga.js Also, to be a tad bit more cynical, there are quite a few agencies or design studios out there that were eager to jump on the GA bandwagon but did a terrible job and botched a 5-line code insertion. Let's not get me *too* started either ;-) I can let you imagine how these agencies are going to feel responsible about maintaining your tracking code. Heck, agencies are just now discovering blog posts like this one and are scrambling to migrate huge sites by next summer just to be safe. But who are they kidding? The "new" ga.js code has been around since 2007 and people had tons of time to upgrade since then. Long story short: surround yourself with experts and make it your own responsibility to keep up to date with the latest GA news. And upgrade to ga.js code before July ;-) Cheers, Julien

I run two (small) websites that use Google Analytics, and this is the first time I even heard about the existence of a new script. This is despite the fact that I regularly log in to Analytics, and that they do have my e-mail address. Analytics could easily detect whether your site is still using the old script, and display a big fat warning that you should upgrade. And at the very least they should have sent out an e-mail to all their users, telling them to upgrade.

@Philip: Sorry, missed your comment before. Thank you for the kind words. Most of the Pingdom team is Swedish (we're headquartered here), but we have some people from Serbia too.

Thanks everyone for the comments so far. Keep'em coming. :) @Josh: Swiff Chart Pro. @Julien: Didn't know you were in Sweden! Hope you're enjoying your stay! (You've got mail.) :) @Anne: Good question. We'd love to know as well.

One thing I noticed is that unless you know from somewhere else, there's nothing within the Google Analytics system that tells you to upgrade, nor is there any indication of how to upgrade the code snippet...

It would be interesting to know why the sites haven't migrated. Is this a simple communication problem where people don't know of the new script. Or, is there a compelling reason to keep the old.

@Cyberjive: Migration guide here instead? http://www.google.com/support/analytics/bin/answer.py?answer=76305&cbid=gtssflo3oa3o&src=cb&lev=topic

@Cyberjive the PDF is indeed gone but the migration guide lives on at http://www.google.com/support/googleanalytics/bin/answer.py?answer=76305&topic=10981 and for the record, i'm staying in Sweden this week only ;-)

Funny thing: Google's guide for migrating away from urchin.js doesn't seem to be available anymore. Used to be here: http://www.google.com/analytics/GATCmigrationguide.pdf Maybe they think people are done? :D

I'm not really surprised to see Blogger using old scripts, even if they are from the company who owns them. Blogger is out-dated in pretty much every way. Sorry for getting off-topic but... do you use a special tool to make your shiny diagrams? I tried many web apps to make them but they never looked as beautiful as yours ;o)

These tests that Pingdom performs on the Internet are very interesting! Keep up the good work :) By the way, are you all Swedes working at Pingdom or is there a mix of nationalities? Thanks for a very nice blog!