Our partners at Omniture announced yesterday a new tool to improve the quality and complexity of tracking user behaviours in Flash applications. (Read the new release).

It's called Omniture ActionSource, and per the release:

Historically, developers have had to manipulate data through both JavaScript and ActionScript in order to generate Web analytics reporting on their Flash-based applications. Not only was this two-step process complicated and cumbersome, but the integrity of the data could be compromised during the translation process from one language to the other, rendering unreliable results. With native ActionScript tracking, Omniture ActionSource eliminates the programming communication barrier—capturing data directly from the source to provide true and accurate metrics, while also simplifying the analysis processes. Because ActionSource is independent of any JavaScript interaction, this method not only provides precise and easy reporting, but also enables the portability of applications across Web properties. AutoTrack, a key feature of ActionSource, allows Omniture customers to measure Flash activity without the need to code individual elements of the Flash application. Omniture AutoTrack can listen for click action to determine if the click is related to a button or movie clip activity, then automatically capture and send that data for reporting—something no other solution has been able to accomplish.

According to Clickz, the technology also enables Omniture's site overlay technology, ClickMap, to disply the clicks within Flash applications.

The way the web is presented is changing radically, as video proliferates (increasingly in flash players) and AJAX ads more dynamism to how pages behave. It's great to see Omniture dramatically addressing the evolving needs of analytics users.

{Hat tip to Random Analytics}

Bonus Link: Next Generation Web Analytics.