Google Analytics: Site Stats on Steroids

I know.  Google has their hands in everything (and we won't even start discussing the evil empire concept).  But have you seen Google Analytics?  It's a free program for tracking your web site traffic and then some.

I'm currently co-authoring a book on Google Analytics with Mary Tyler, and from what I've seen so far, this is a nifty application with useful applications to e-commerce and web marketing. 

It came out of an acquisition that Google did last year.  It acquired Urchin web analytics, and then rebranded the product as Google Analytics.  Now the program is available for free to anyone that wants to use it (up to 5 million page views if you don't have an AdWords account, unlimited if you do).  Only, you have to get past the invitation process.

Google didn't plan for the popularity of the program.  (Why not?)  more than 250,000 people signed up to access the application in the first two days, and Google was overwhelmed, so it stopped all registrations.  They're back open, on an invitation basis, and you can request an invitation from the site.  But it could take a couple of months to get it.  They send the invitations as the resources to support more accounts is added.

So, assuming you get into Google Analytics, what can you do with it?  A whole lot more than you can do with a stats packs like AWStats or Webalizer.  For starters, Google Analytics doesn't just throw captured information at you and leave you to decide what it means.  The application filters the information into usable reports and graphics.  So, if you're interested in learning specifics about your site, like how often do you lose visitors during the middle of a transaction, Google Analytics has the answer.

It also has integration with AdWords, which is a big plus.  You can use Google Analytics to track your AdWords campaigns in a more comprehensive manner, so you get a clearer picture of what works and what doesn't.

If it's got all this, there much be a catch, right?  The biggest catch I can find so far is figuring out how to use it.  Google Analytics installs easily enough, but you've got to be a Metrics Master to understand everything there is to know about all of the reports and filters.  For example, you can use regular expressions to filter for specifics on your site.   My question is, what the heck are regular expressions? 

I do know what they are, I just don't fully understand how they apply to Google Analytics' capabilities and how they benefit me.  There's where the site is lean.  There are a handful of case studies--RE/MAX and SiteBuilder's among them--that illustrate that the program can work.  But there's no clear instruction on how to apply Google Analytics to your specific problem.  

I think it's fair to say that Google Analytics is site states on steroids.  But just like steroids, there has to be a clear understanding of how it's used for the program to be useful.  The explanation is coming...just not from Google.