New API Revealed for Google Analytics

Google began previewing on Wednesday a spruced-up API to access Google Analytics configuration data.

Google Analytics gives users insights into website traffic and marketing effectiveness. Described as a significant new piece of the Google Analytics developer platform, the Google Analytics Management API offers read-only access to Google Analytics configuration data and consists of five new Google Data Feeds that map directly into the Google Analytics data model, said Jeetendra M. Soneja, of the Google Analytics API team, in a blog post on Wednesday.

Read-only access is offered to account, profile, web property and goal data as well as to advanced segments.

While the previous API returned all configuration data at once, which could be inefficient, the separate feeds enable developers to request only needed data, said Soneja.

"Many developers have asked for a faster, more powerful way to access Google Analytics account configuration data through the Data Export API. We've listened and today we're releasing a preview of the new Google Analytics Management API," Soneja said.

"The API will change, grow, and get better over time. We recommend developers who aren't committed to making updates to their applications only experiment with the new API and continue to use the Account Feed as their primary source for configuration data. We will strive to give you at least one month advanced notice of changes to this API," Soneja said.