2

I know that an actual client ID looks like this: 1054613344.1468150257
But the _ga cookies that contains the client ID has a GA1.2. prefix and looks like this: GA1.2.1054613344.1468150257

What is the meaning of this prefix? Why does _ga cookie contain it?

Sergey
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  • Possible duplicate of [what are the values in \_ga cookie?](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/16102436/what-are-the-values-in-ga-cookie) – nyuen Jul 15 '16 at 13:45

2 Answers2

2
  • GA.1.3 Would appear on a sub-domain
  • GA.1.2 is for Universal Analytics
  • GA.1.1 is for Google Analytics 4

The different versions of Google analytics are.

  • GA1 – Urchin Analytics (urchin.js)
  • GA2 – Classic Analytics (ga.js)
  • GA3 – Universal Analytics (analytics.js)
  • GA4 – Google Analytics 4 (gtag.js)
kenyob
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I don't know the answer for sure, but here is my guess:

The "GA" obviously stands for "Google Analytics" and the "1.2." is probably the version number of either the whole Google Analytics API or just the version of the client IDs.

If one day Google decides to change the ID format (or the API), they get no conflicts, since the prefix acts as a namespace. They could even react to outdated IDs and inform the user about it, so the client can change it. On the other side, the prefix ensures backward-compatibility. Again, in case of an update, you can still serve the clients with old IDs without impacting those with new IDs.

Hubert Grzeskowiak
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  • I don't believe this is correct. This question was asked here http://stackoverflow.com/questions/16102436/what-are-the-values-in-ga-cookie – nyuen Jul 15 '16 at 13:47