What is Optimizely?
Optimizely is an American company that develops software to optimize websites and apps. The company is headquartered in San Francisco, California. The company also has offices in Amsterdam, Cologne, London, and Sydney. The platform, known as Optimizely X, is delivered in a Software as a Service (SaaS) model. It provides A/B test tools to compare two versions of a website in terms of performance and tools for web experimentation, personalization, recommendations, mobile apps, full-stack, and over-the-top content.
How does Optimizely work?
The platform is an A/B testing and experimentation tool that allows web site operators and webmasters to conduct multivariate experiments for websites. In addition, an iOS and Android integration are offered, with which similar experiments can be carried out with mobile apps. All information from the experiments is presented in a so-called “Stats Engine” dashboard, which monitors performance and statistical significance so that decisions can be derived from the results.
The software is installed on the client side by inserting a code snippet directly into the code of a website. Once this snippet is added, tests can be run for the Web. For web-based experiments, each project must have its own JavaScript line integrated into the < head> – area of the web page.
History of Optimizely
The company was founded in 2010 by Dan Siroker and Pete Koomen, both former Google employees. Dan Siroker was the product manager for the Google Chrome Browser until its founding. Pete Koomen was the product manager for the Google App Engine. The company was financed by venture capital from Google, among others.
As part of a major international expansion plan, the company announced the launch of its platform in nine additional languages in April 2013: Danish, Dutch, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Portuguese, Spanish and Swedish. In September 2016, the company released Optimizely X with advanced solutions for web experimentation, personalization, recommendations, mobile, full stack, and OTT.
Optimizely’s advantages for app developers
The biggest advantages are the user-friendliness and ease of use, which also enables non-IT specialists to use the platform. The platform offers complete control over JavaScript. All changes that are made are automatically converted into JavaScript statements that correspond to these changes. The generated JavaScript can be edited or changed. With the software, it is possible to track any number of targets, page views, JavaScript events or user-defined events. All data sent by users to the platform is automatically stored, allowing users to add and remove destinations. In addition, the platform enables automated cross-browser testing of Web pages, provides support for dynamically generated Web pages, and enables behavioral targeting. It is also possible to conduct unlimited simultaneous experiments.
You can find out more about optimizely on their homepage: https://www.optimizely.com/
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