Google Analytics, released in 2005 after the company acquired Urchin, which was formed in 1998, has become an essential tool for any digital marketer. By the end of 2011, we were using Universal Analytics (UA), a rebranding of Google Analytics. With gtag.js, Google paves the way for data to be transmitted to Google Ads and the Google Marketing Platform. Google introduced Google Analytics 4 (GA4) in 2020 as the updated tracking protocol for new GA properties.