Google launched its own MVT tool yesterday, after 6 months of closed beta testing (see our October 2006 post). There's an overview video on Google that explains it pretty well.
Google considers the testing tool the third leg on the three-legged stool (our industry's favorite cliche), supporting AdWords and Google Analytics.
From ClickZ: "The main problem we're trying to solve is to get people out of the dark ages in terms of how they develop pages," Tom Leung, Google's product manager for Website Optimizer, told ClickZ News. "All too often, they'll just put a page together and maybe the designer will do a few mock-ups, and they'll point to the one they feel is going to be the best one."
Leung says the goal is to help marketers convert their Web sites into a "living laboratory" and expressed the hope it will improve the usability of the Internet overall. Sites will, theoretically, provide more of what online consumers are looking for.
The service currently allows users to upload 10,000 page versions.
Interestingly, the service has launched with "trusted partners" who will serve as consultants to companies new to MVT. Among them is Optimost, one of the leaders in the MVT space. You'd think that they'd view Google's multivariate testing offer as some serious competition, but instead, they've "locked elbows to serve leads and inquiries from customers who ultimately can't afford the latter's technology. These leads the firm will refer to Google and support as a consultant," per ClickZ. Interesting.
(We, as reported in the past, offer MVT through partner Offermatica.)
The link to the video for Google MVT seems to be broken.
Posted by: Paul | April 05, 2007 at 04:18 PM