Segment

Segment is a customer data platform that collects event data once through a single SDK and routes the same stream to analytics, marketing and warehouse destinations.

Segment collects and distributes; it does not report. Client code sends track, identify and page calls, and Segment copies each one to every destination that is switched on, which means swapping an analytics vendor no longer requires re-instrumenting the product. The product name also collides with the ordinary word segment, meaning a subset of users, and the two are constantly confused in writing. The common mistake is expecting the pipe to improve data quality: quality comes from a tracking plan and a naming convention, and a pipeline only distributes whatever it is given.