Here come the dueling analytics

Microsoft has begun beta testing on its own free analytics offering, reports ClickZ.

Dubbed Project Gatineau, the service allows adCenter advertisers to analyze how visitors got to their site and what their behavior is like once there.

Advertisers can view which campaigns were most effective, be it via email, banner or any other format, and track conversions and results, whatever the defined goal might be.

If the visitor who hits the site is logged into a Microsoft LiveID (formerly Passport) account, the webmaster will also be able to view demographic and geographic information on that user.

The free campaign analytics tool is perceived as a move to compete with Google, which offers its own free Analytics product, reports CMSWire.

Whether Gatineau can catch up to Google Analytics, which enjoys a sizable lead in the free analytics market, is anybody's guess.