This morning I saw that the tracker code for Google Analytics had been updated to a new file, ga.js. The old file (urchin.js) is still available and Google says it will continue to function for at least another year.

The new tracker replicates all the functionality that was available in urchin.js but adds some much-needed consistency in function calls.

Google claims the new tracker:

• is faster and smaller
• is easier to use
• detects https: automatically (yay!)
• increases namespace safety
• improves e-commerce and cross-domain tracking

On the downside, any implementation that involves more than pasting the tracker above the tag is likely to be a pain in the butt to change. This is because the function calls have changed, and edits are needed everywhere they occur in HTML forms, links and so on.

There’s plenty of good documentation here:

http://www.google.com/analytics/GATCmigrationguide.pdf

http://www.google.com/analytics/InstallingGATrackingCode.pdf