Last week, Google added a new feature in Google Apps that allowed educational institutes and organizations to track how people are interacting with Gmail messages.
Anyone with admin access in Google Apps can see basic visitor stats for Gmail messages including length of visits, geographic location, what browser are they using to read their emails and so on.
This email tracking feature via Google Analytics is now available across all Gmail accounts though you will have to enable it manually via GMail labs.
Once Google Analytics is enabled, go to the General tab in Gmail Settings and type your Google Analytics Tracking code which is of the format UA-xxxxxxx-y where ‘-y’ refers to the profile number. Always create a separate Analytics profile for tracking Gmail messages else this can inflate your existing site impressions.
Though Google Analytics for Gmail will only provide very basic information about email recipients and there’s no support for read receipts, this could still be seen as a privacy risk by some because there’s no way for you to prevent Google Analytics from tracking your interaction with a Gmail message unless you block the Analytics script itself on the computer.
I will also be more happy if this is an "opt in" feature for the recipient so that he or she can decide whether the email sender should have access to their information or not – this is how you have in Microsoft Outlook.
Related: Track Email Clicks with Google Analytics
Find this article at: http://www.labnol.org/internet/email/track-gmail-with-google-analytics/8082/
Tags: exclusive, gmail, google analytics, Email
Reader Comments
This has got me worried seriously. If you are sending an email to me alone using Gmail and my visit shows up in Google Analytics, this is as good as getting a read receipt.
Written by Shyam on 03.31.09
Just enabled this in Gmail and sent a test message to my other other account but don’t see that yet in Google Analytics report. Do you know how long will it take for the data to appear?
Written by svtuts on 03.31.09
And what about Yahoo or Hotmail? Can you track messages that are sent from Gmail to other email services or is this only limited to Gmail and Google Apps accounts.
Written by Yahoo user on 03.31.09
@Shyam – good observation.
@svtuts – Google Analytics reports normally take more than 2 hours to display data for regular web pages. I expect the same time gab for Gmail messages as well.
@yahoo user – I am not sure. Will test it though and update this post with the results.
Written by Amit on 03.31.09
I don’t think this has been rolled out to everyone yet. My old Gmail account has the Google Analytics gadget but I don’t see it anywhere in my new Gmail address that I created last month.
Written by Matt_R on 03.31.09
that means one more guy waiting to creep into user privacy!
Written by Mohan on 03.31.09
What if, gmail is viewed through desktop email clients like Microsoft Outlook using POP3.
I think, Analytics will not be able to tract that.
Written by Suraj Shrestha on 03.31.09
In my labs this feature isn’t active yet :(
Sorry for my english, great article!
Written by **Juanito** on 03.31.09
Hello Amit,
Thank you for this post. I found it after performing google search for gmail tracking. It seems that when I use my gmail account at school for school correspondence, there is a small dot attached to the upper right corner of the cursor. it does not appear always, mostly at school. I noticed it once before, when I tried to delete my facebook details. I erased everything, and as the last text character erased, the dot appeared on the cursor. Strange, though true. I have nothing to hide, though am on principle opposed to extra eyes peering into my scheduling correspondence with professors. My philosophy that one should ask if one is interested, not spy.
Written by tahira on 04.01.09