Chartbeat isn't trying to compete with an analytics package like Google Analytics, they don't measure any of the same metrics. Chartbeat allows you to react in real-time when events occur. If your site goes down or suddenly a flood of traffic comes to your site after a review (good or bad) you can get alerted and respond without having to wait a day.
Think of it like this: Google Analytics can tell you how to better position fire hydrants and increase the efficiency of the fire engine's route to your house. Chartbeat can tell you that your house is on fire.
Why not use Clicky (http://www.getclicky.com)? It gives you both the ability to track users in real time using the Spy feature and get the same level of detail that Google delivers.
Hmm, this site has failed me from a usability standpoint.
After browsing there via Firefox, I was told I could not use the site without Flash (which I don't have installed for Firefox). That's usually strike one. But I really was interested in what the site had to offer.
So, after copying the URL and opening Internet Explorer to see the page, which I often do on Flash-centric designs, I got this notification:
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You need to install Microsoft Silverlight if you want to use chartbeat with Internet Explorer. Or, you can use Firefox or Google Chrome browsers (chartbeat functions smoother with either)
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I can imagine more than one scenario where users wouldn't be able to install Silverlight (or had painful installion failures like I did).
I'm a system administrator and SilverLight has repeatedly failed to install successfully for me. I'm tired of trying to diagnose a problem when no usable errors are found.
However, the crux of my problem is that they are requiring Flash for Mozilla and SilverLight for IE. My advice for them is to pick one and do it "right."
It surely looks great for eye-candy. But, not sure if it is useful though for anything real. I usually need some time to sit down and properly "digest" the statistics before we decide on anything.
Scale. It's easy to give real time stats when you're only monitoring a few hundred sites. There's a lot more data to crunch when you're trying to monitor half the web.
getclicky.com monitors over 200,000 sites and it's real time. Sure it's challenging to provide that level of service but without challenge life is dull.
I only meant to imply that providing such a feature is more work than a "few lines of code" when you're trying to monitor millions of sites in real time.
Oh, ok. I interpreted your comment to mean that no major service could pull real time analytics beacuse it's just too hard. Sure we're a lot smaller than Google but 200,000 is a pretty big number if I do say so myself.
Think of it like this: Google Analytics can tell you how to better position fire hydrants and increase the efficiency of the fire engine's route to your house. Chartbeat can tell you that your house is on fire.