track_install alternative for installation analytics? Any alternative

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William A.

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Mar 3, 2023, 8:25:12 AM3/3/23
to Chromium Extensions
I see that as of yesterday, /track_install url path has stopped working for installation. Previously we used to use this url path as a measurement of downloads on Google analytics. Now it stopped working

Do you know if this is going to be permanent? 

Do you know if there is another alternative we can use? I see that sometimes during installation it shows /related in url, but not sure if this is correct always as the numbers seems to be way off. 

Regards

Oliver Dunk

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Mar 3, 2023, 8:36:43 AM3/3/23
to William A., Chromium Extensions
Hi William,

Apologies for this. I need to check with the team, but we recently made some changes to how Google Analytics works behind the scenes. I suspect this is a result of that and not an intentional change.

We've been having some discussion over in this thread which we'll also try to keep updated: https://groups.google.com/a/chromium.org/g/chromium-extensions/c/8mLf39E7i2c/m/UQ8dEzzGAQAJ.

I'll make sure we follow-up here as soon as possible, hopefully in the next few hours.
Oliver Dunk | DevRel, Chrome Extensions | https://developer.chrome.com/ | London, GB


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William A.

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Mar 3, 2023, 8:47:16 AM3/3/23
to Oliver Dunk, Chromium Extensions
Hi Oliver, 

Thank you for your response. 

Great to hear this may not be a permanent change. Will wait. 

Just to add, I see that at present when we install an extension, it does not take us to the url with /track_install, so not sure if this is all about analytics. 

Anyway, will wait and see. Thank you again for the prompt response, appreciate it. 

Zach Warneke

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Mar 3, 2023, 2:32:00 PM3/3/23
to Chromium Extensions, William A., Chromium Extensions, Oliver Dunk
Hello! CWS eng here. The track_install path should be fixed now - sorry for the inconvenience. We have a few of these custom paths that we send events for, and they were being sent as normal page view events instead recently (so you may have seen slightly more normal page views for your extension while the track_install ones were missing).

Re: alternatives, we also have some internal metrics that track installs, although those metrics are aggregated daily (e.g. see the "Installs" tab on the dev dashboard: https://developer.chrome.com/blog/cws-analytics-revamp/). Feel free to check out the other analytics pages on the dev dashboard as well if you haven't!

Zach

David Emelianov

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Mar 22, 2023, 12:38:48 PM3/22/23
to Chromium Extensions, Zach Warneke, William A., Chromium Extensions, Oliver Dunk
Hello, unfortunately we are still experiencing issues with the track_install path. The events are being logged in Analytics now, but they are not being attributed to Organic vs Paid search anymore. This has compromised our Google Search Ads campaigns and is having a massive impact on our business. 

I posted a detailed summary of our issue in another thread here: https://groups.google.com/a/chromium.org/g/chromium-extensions/c/8mLf39E7i2c/m/judVKpzIBwAJ

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks,
David

Himanshu Ragtah

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Sep 6, 2023, 7:37:39 PM9/6/23
to Chromium Extensions, David Emelianov, Zach Warneke, William A., Chromium Extensions, Oliver Dunk
unable to see track_install. is it visible for anyone of you in google analytics 4? It was working fine before the switch to google analytics 4

Oliver Dunk

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Sep 7, 2023, 6:26:33 AM9/7/23
to Himanshu Ragtah, Chromium Extensions, David Emelianov, Zach Warneke, William A.
Hi Himanshu,

This should still be working.

We also generate an equivalent `install` event - can you see that?

Thanks,

Oliver Dunk | DevRel, Chrome Extensions | https://developer.chrome.com/ | London, GB

Oliver Dunk

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Oct 26, 2023, 5:16:54 AM10/26/23
to Himanshu Ragtah, Chromium Extensions, David Emelianov, Zach Warneke, William A.
Hi all,

Just to note, we posted a PSA after a conversation with the team yesterday which may explain some of the behaviour you were seeing: https://groups.google.com/a/chromium.org/g/chromium-extensions/c/w_EuCNVr9Zw/m/OewY-7hLAQAJ

Apologies for not thinking of this :)
Oliver Dunk | DevRel, Chrome Extensions | https://developer.chrome.com/ | London, GB

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