Google Analytics experiences “data processing error”

Today, as I logged into my Google Analytics account, I got the following message:

System Message: Analytics Processing Delay from April 30th to May 5th

Google Analytics experienced a data processing error from April 30th to May 5th. Almost all of the data has been recovered and is currently being reprocessed. The recovered data will be reflected in your reports within a few days. Please note that a small percentage of data, particularly in the area of e-commerce reporting, was not recoverable from those dates.

We sincerely apologize for this processing issue and are taking every precaution to prevent such disruptions from occurring again in the future. For more information, please read through our common questions.

The Google Analytics Team

I recall being a little surprised with the way my graphs looked back then but didn’t think anything of it, since I expected it to be something like this. I don’t run for-profit websites though, so would I have been an online retailer I might’ve been a little nervous with what would’ve seemed to be a sudden drop in traffic.

Besides the fact that it’s a shame this fault caused certain “errors” in data processing, the actual notice to confirm that something was wrong on Google’s side is a little late. Besides the fact that this fault may have shocked some, I sincerely hope it didn’t spur businesses to react to the perceived drop in traffic and the cost that comes along with that.

One question remains: Does this kind of thing happen with any of the larger vendor solutions? Is this one of those “You get what you pay for” moments (even though Google Analytics is still awesome, despite such rare quirks)?