In a burst of kindness not at all unknown to Google, the search giant has released a standalone version of its Analytics web statistics software for everyone to use.

The software, dubbed Urchin, was actually bought by Google in 2005 and renamed to Google Analytics. The version Google released to the public is meant to run independently on a server, not on Google’s servers as is the case with Analytics. Analytics/Urchin is one of the best traffic stats programs out there, so good in fact that PC Fastlane uses it.

Who does this help? The average web user won’t be impacted by this, and neither will the average webmaster. The new Urchin release will benefit sites with content behind firewalls such as corporate intranet sites, however. If you wish to give it a go, click here to join the beta. The software works on a variety of operating systems, and is free for three months.

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