between the ... HTML head tags because, once triggered, it runs in parallel with page loading. In April 2011 Google announced the availability of a new version of Google Analytics featuring multiple dashboards, more custom report options, and a new interface design. This version was later updated with some other features such as real-time analytics and goal flow charts. In October 2012 another new version of Google Analytics was announced, called Universal Analytics. The key differences from the previous versions were: cross-platform tracking, flexible tracking code to collect data from any device, and the introduction of custom dimensions and custom metrics. In March 2016, Google released Google Analytics 360, which is a software suite that provides analytics on return on investment and other marketing indicators. Google Analytics 360 includes seven main products: Analytics, Tag Manager, Optimize, Data Studio, Surveys, Attribution, and Audience Center. In October 2017 a new methodology to collect data for Google Analytics was announced, called Global Site Tag, or gTag.js. Its stated purpose was to unify the tagging system to simplify implementation. This new tag type is an alternative to the existing Analytics.js tag type or Google Tag Manager. In June 2018, Google introduced Google Marketing Platform, an online advertisement and analytics brand. It consists of two former brands of Google, DoubleClick Digital Marketing and Google Analytics 360. In October 2020, Google released Google Analytics 4, under the acronym GA4. Instead of being "hit-based," like Universal Analytics, GA4 is "event-based." In March 2022, Google announced that on July 1, 2023, standard Universal Analytics properties will stop processing new hits. Users will need to upgrade to GA4. Technology Google Analytics is implemented with "page tags", in this case, called the Google Analytics Tracking Code, which is a snippet of JavaScript code that the website owner adds to every page of the website. The tracking code runs in the client browser when the client browses the page (if JavaScript is enabled in the browser) and collects visitor data and sends it to a Google data collection server as part of a request for a web beacon. The tracking code loads a larger JavaScript file from the Google web server and then sets variables with the user's account number. The larger file (currently known as ga.js) was typically 40 kB as of May 2018. The file does not usually have to be loaded, however, due to browser caching. Assuming caching