Gripes about Google Analytics

I’m not usually one to look a gift horse in the mouth, but I’m a bit peeved with Google and their Analytics utilities.

For the past year or so, I have been using Google Analytics and have been extremely impressed with the reports it provides on all of my Web sites. However, there has always been one aspect of the Analytics utility that’s driven me crazy: the tracking code always causes javascript warnings.

I was hopeful, however, when I logged into my Analytics account today and noticed that Google is providing new tracking code for Analytics users. I copied the code and promptly pasted it into the template for one of my sites. Much to my chagrin, when I loaded the page in Firefox and checked my code debugger, I found that the new code produces just as many, if not more, errors as the old.

Why is it so difficult for these large organizations, including Google, Yahoo!, Microsoft and so many more, to produce usable, clean, efficient, error-free code? Why do we have to continue putting up with these types of issues from organizations that probably employ more full-time coders than anyone else in the world?

UPDATE – I’ve added some screen shots of my error console after the jump.

The new qa analytics code:

New Analytics Code Warnings

Old “Urchin” javascript warnings:

Urchin code warnings