Interesting twist using Google Analytics to do site optimization. The interesting part is the shift of mentality. Instead of scratching your head going for the best, why not put a bunch out there and using as a row data for the next generation. Sounds familiar?

Yes, they will not mention it, but it heavily uses a simple evolutionary model. Using they words: you start with a basic set of variations, then you measure, oh you may want to try another set of variants based on the best ones. Yes, definitely evolutionary-based flavor. After going over the presentation, you will be wondering why they do not called interactive genetic algorithm? Well, I do not have the answer, but what I can say is that process can be modeled using an interactive genetic algorithm. The DISCUS project has shown that for the last five years. An introductory paper about how interactive genetic algorithms can help with such kind of modeling can be found here.

Related posts:

1. Analyzing active interactive genetic algorithms using visual analytics
2. Toward routine billion-variable optimization using genetic algorithms
3. Google Notebook