Reflecting on my #DigitalAnalytics journey, I'm reminded of a time when the term was still in its infancy and we called it #WebAnalytics. My first piece on the subject emerged on my blog on January 2, 2006. I had started by blog a few years back (2002) and had already been working as a "webmaster" for several years. On the eve of the death of Universal Analytics, I thought I'd share a snippet from that historic era: — I've been using the Web since the first Mosaic inception in 1993 and even before, through Gopher and other Internet services. Web reporting, initially a technical field merely measuring "hits," has now grown to a maturity level where various fields of science (statistics, human-computer interaction, interface design, etc.) truly leverage the technical tools at our disposal through Web Analytics. Some products I've used or implemented: •WebSideStory HBX •Coremetrics •Omniture SiteCatalyst •Google Analytics (a.k.a. Urchin) •WebTrends •Deepmetrix LiveStats •Nedstat — Reflecting on the seismic shifts we've witnessed: •HBX and Coremetrics were swallowed by Omniture, which Adobe later acquired... •Deepmetrix transformed into Gatineau post-Microsoft's acquisition, only to die a short moment later. Today, Microsoft offers Clarity but it has never gained traction like #GoogleAnalytics did. •WebTrends was also assimilated by Microsoft, now predominantly a SharePoint point solution. •Nedstat was integrated into Comscore's operations. Now, we see Google finally bidding adieu to concepts and the code base of Urchin, a relic that must be at least 20 years old. While journeying down this nostalgic path, I unearthed my initial posts on #dataethics and #dataprivacy: • "Protect Your Customers’ Privacy Ethically, Not Legally," November 2006 • "Cookies will get you confused," February 2007 - when I talked about using Flash cookies and said those were unethical; • or what about "Is it ethical to track individual details through WA?" June 2007 I've come a long way and the sands of time have certainly shifted. I'm closer to retirement now than ever, yet my passion for the field hasn't waned a bit! Farewell Universal Analytics! Long live GA4 (cough, cough), or any other worthy alternatives!