Business optimisation specialist Omniture has launched version 13 of its hosted SiteCatalyst software, with enhancements to help firms evaluate how well they are using Web 2.0 technologies to improve their business.

Version 13 can help marketing staff to analyse traffic on social networking sites and determine which contributors’ content is most valuable, said Neil Morgan of Omniture. It can also help firms measure the impact of their corporate blogs - for example by showing if visitors to the blogs are more likely to buy products from other areas of a site.

Support for dynamic site search, meanwhile, can help firms see which search terms produce the most revenue from resulting sales, so when someone searches the system can link the most profitable products with that particular search string, said Morgan

The software also supports Flash and other tools used to build Web 2.0 applications, so they can be tracked, alongside more conventional internet advertising

“There has been no tool to measure this kind of thing before because it’s a new phenomenon”, said Morgan. “When firms deploy Web 2.0 technologies they will be able to see their return on investment, and it will help people build more intuitive Web 2.0 [systems] and accelerate development in the area.”

The new version also features a new administration console, which can unify control of online marketing and so make management more cost-effective, said Morgan.