August 21st, 2007
A (Microsoft) Code Name a Day: Gatineau
I’m resuming my Microsoft Code Name a Day series that I started in December 2006. The goal: To provide the back story, each day in August, on one of Microsoft’s myriad code names. Some of these code names might be familiar to Microsoft watchers; others (hopefully) will be brand-new.
Microsoft code names offer some great clues about the Redmondians’ development priorities, not to mention a better understanding of which future Microsoft products fit together, from a strategy standpoint. And not every product group is moving to boring, numbered codenames (like Windows 7 and Office 14).
Without further ado, let the codename games begin.
Microsoft
code name
of the day:
Gatineau
Microsoft code name of the day: Gatineau
Best guess on what it is: Microsoft’s Web analytics for Microsoft’s adCenter online ad platform
Meaning/context of the code name: Gatineau is a city in western Quebec, Canada. Looks like it’s another of Microsoft’s growing family of geographic-place codenames.
Back story: Gatineau is based on the analytics technology the company got when it purchased DeepMetrix in 2006. Microsoft began alpha testing Gatineau in January, 2007. Microsoft began inviting beta testers the week of August 20 to test Gatineau. No word yet on when Microsoft plans to release the final version.
Additional info: Features of Gatineau include click and visitor tracking; marketing campaign reporting; conversion tracking; demographic and geographic segmentation; and paid and natural search analysis. Gatineau competes directly with Google Analytics, based on Google’s acquisition of Urchin.
Got a Microsoft code name you’ve been wondering about? Send it my way and I’ll do my best to track down some leads on what it might be.
And if you want to keep track of the full month’s worth of Microsoft code names I end up posting, bookmark this “Microsoft Codenames” page. You can also check out this video-whiteboard I did recently on Microsoft codenames.
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