| An Evolution Towards Web Channel Performance Management |
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1996-1999: Marketwave Corporation
HitList began in 1996 as a fairly standard website logfile analysis tool, albeit with an important difference from most competitors even back then - it used a database to store the webserver logs loaded, and used SQL behind the scenes to run reports. Most competitive products at that time (and some to this day) either simply produce summarized totals of such data in reports, or don't employ standardized SQL to execute such reports, relying on more obscure Perl scripts and proprietary approaches. Over time, many important features were added, including network collection/live data loading, SQL Server 7.0 support, initial Oracle and DB2 support, and improvements to the Hit List API and plugin architecture. But the focus was still web analytics, first and foremost. Versions during this time began with Hit List Standard 1.0 and evolved to the final suite of Marketwave products, Hit List Pro, Commerce, Enterprise and Live 4.0 versions. 1999-2002: Accrue Software, Inc. When Marketwave was acquired in October 1999 by a competitor, Accrue Software, further enhancements to Hit List were made to complement Accrue's suite of products. As the primary Windows-based analytics tool offered by Accrue (most other Accrue products ran on Unix), Hit List changes included further updates for database loading and SQL Server 2000 support, updated Oracle and DB2 support, unified network collector logging and Queue preservation, and Windows 2000/XP support. But the purpose of the product was still web analytics. Versions created by Accrue began with Hit List 4.5, 4.5.1, 4.6 and Hit List 4.7. The low end versions of Hit List (Pro and Commerce) were dropped, the Live and Enterprise versions were effectively merged. June 2002 - December 2006: Pilot Software, Inc. When the current Pilot Software Corporation was created in June 2002, major enhancements were initially added to HitList to serve two purposes: 1. Update the feature set again to match/exceed the competitive marketplace, and 2. Update and modify the user interface towards a unified look and feel with other Pilot products. HitList 4.8 and 5.0 in the late summer and fall of 2002 added enhancements that included the new unified web interface, new advanced Path reporting, and various other usability tweaks, including more powerful content grouping through the Virtual Server Manager. With the debut of HitList 5.5 in mid-summer 2003, many more powerful features were added, including the dynamic Path Explorer, user-configurable Dashboards, Conversion Manager, Global Constants Manager, more powerful database loading and exclusion capabilities and client page tagging. HitList 5.6 - first version specifically aimed towards Web Channel Performance Management HitList 5.6, introduced in November 2003, was the first version of the product to include functionality specifically geared for use with Web Channel PM. These features include Comparative Graphs, Target Graphs (for both conventional charts as well as conversion funnel graphing), default robot user-agent exclusion based on ABC auditing specifications, and Report Linking for easy web-based information drill-down. Many of the earlier HitList 5.5 key features have also been refocused on Web Channel PM, and our market positioning for HitList clearly reflects this. The Final Version of Hitlist produced by Pilot Software was Version 5.7.
Marketwave 2007 -
Marketwave already have a 5.8 release planned for 2008 and a plans for a 6.0 version are on the drawing board. If you have views of how you would like to see HitList evolve in the future, please let us know your thoughts at feedback @ marketwave.com 
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