Web Analytics 3.0 was announced, more or less, at XChange (which I attended) by Eric T. Peterson; Anil Batra's post on XChange, Web Analytics 3.0 and Behavioral Targeting and conversations what went on after Eric's keynote last Thursday:

"..Eric and I later discussed how I did some early mobile analytics work for one of my clients, a leading mobile services provider, while I was a digiMine (now Revenue Science). At that time we were still trying to figure out the whole mobile analysis."

It's all about mobile devices; Matthew Nelson (who I met and who sat in on my session on Second Life Analytics) wrote about it in Meteor Hits Napa! Web Analytics Set Back a Decade! Wine Saved!:

"…As mobile devices can't be as easily tracked, or have cookies installed or other standard analytic tools "It's going to be a mess," he said. "But it's also going to be an opportunity. This device doesn't have cookies, but it does have a phone number, and a GPS address. It's going to be great for an advertising perspective, but we have to measure it and we're woefully unprepared."

Meanwhile, here's Web Analytics 3.0 in Eric T. Peterson's own words - it's a post titled: Web Analytics 2.0? I am more worried about Web Analytics 3.0!:

"…I find myself absolutely convinced that the next technology era will be characterized by our collective ability to access the Internet anyplace, anytime, using so many devices we begin to look back on computers much the same way young people do television today — as something nice to use when YouTube is unavailable. Rolf Skyberg, a disruptive innovator from eBay who I met in Rotterdam a few weeks back, called it “digital ubiquity” — the point where we forget that the Internet actually exists and take our ability to access information completely for granted.

Given so many sexy alternatives — 3D web, transforming the Internet into a database, artificial intelligence, and the such — why am I so convinced that in the next three years we’ll be talking about Web 3.0 when we talk about mobile phones and non-traditional browsers?"

Actually, I was thinking that Second Life and 3D Virtual Worlds were also part of Web 3.0; Eric did not agree - and I'm not about to go head to head in an argument over Web Analytics with Eric T. Peterson.   On the other hand, I'll hold my own opinion on Web 3.0 and where it will lead.