Website owners and bloggers know too well the importance of knowing precisely how traffic is going, what readers look for, and which keywords garner the highest number of pageviews. For all these questions and for some other important stuff, the best (free) tool around is Google Analytics.

Google Analytics was, until yesterday, only available online. Webmasters could check out the latest traffic stats by visiting Google Analytics from a mobile browser, but that didn’t offer the convenience and ease of use of a native app. The good news for all of you stats maniacs, Google has now released a dedicated Android app for Google Analytics.

I gave the new Analytics app for Android a quick spin, and I must say I am a little disappointed of the scarcity of information provided. You get the Real Time tab, the Dashboard tab, and the Alerts (custom and automatic) tabs. The Real Time feature is an awesome tool (it shows you precisely how many visitors you have online at a given moment), but you have to refresh it manually and it only displays a limited quantity of information about the visitors. And, while you can add your own charts to the Dashboard from the app, it only supports charts view, so you won't get access to hard figures.

Leaving my gripes aside, I am sure that Google will work to beef up the new Analytics application, and until then, a limited app is far better than no app at all.