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Comment by _3ex7 | Hacker News Reader

What is this http://www.google.com/adwords/tvads/index-b.html and http://www.google.com/adwords/tvads/index-c.html ?

They're doing an A/B test using Google Website Optimizer. You can see the Javascript footprint if you know what to look for.

Incidentally, this is the first time I've ever seen Google using GWO. It is not good software -- for one thing, this thread exists where if they were doing good A/B testing it wouldn't. I used to joke that they'd swallow broken glass before using it on a site which actually mattered to their business interests. Guess I was wrong. (Although they won't be putting it on any app anytime soon.)

Actually I have seek risk of such A/B testing where different URLs are involved. People will bookmark, blog, email all these different URLs and then (when your test gets over) you are left doing 301 redirects from such URLs to your original URL.

Have you tried out the multivariate experiment type in Optimizer? Unlike the "classic" A/B test, there's effectively no risk of exposing the fact that someone is part of an experimental group to normal users. (Of course, HN types could still pick out the telltale JS fragments in the page source, but that's a risk with any testing that has a client-side component.)

We've been pretty happy with GWO's combination of being a) free, b) easy for marketing+management types to use for reporting, and c) integrated with our Analytics and AdWords accounts.

Just out of curiosity, though: are there competitive hosted solutions you would recommend over GWO? More options would be a good thing to know about...

Actually, I have been working on such a tool: Visual Website Optimizer http://visualwebsiteoptimizer.com

Let me know if you would like a beta invite.

and http://www.google.com/adwords/tvads/index.html

A/B Testing, most likely.

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