Google released a new sorting algorithm called weighted sort this week which aims to clear up a lot of the confusion that results from massive sets of data.

When GA users now sort on a computed metric (e.g. bounce rate), the number of data points can be sorted by weight, bringing the most actionable and interesting items to the first few visible rows.

If you’ve ever sorted a report by bounce rate it is not uncommon to see several entries with 100% and with only one visit. What Google is essentially enabling GA users to do is to weight that sorted list by the number of data points, bringing the most actionable and interesting items to the first few visible rows.

Since weighted sort is not a “strict sort”, there will be values that do not follow the order you would assume. The feature is available on popular computed metrics (not just bounce rate), including goal conversion rate and percentage of new visits.