1. A computer-implemented data collection and analysis method comprising: receiving an index specification comprising an index parameter specified by a user, wherein the index parameter corresponds to at least one of a product identifier, a session identifier, and a visitor identifier; receiving, from a plurality of data source computers, time-series data relating to contents of web pages provided to users of a website, wherein the time-series data is in the form of data messages; converting the data messages into datapoints; storing the time-series data in a data repository; indexing the time-series data to create an index of the time-series data stored in the data repository, the time-series data being indexed along a dimension of the time-series data specified by the user-specified index parameter; and storing information concerning the user-specified index parameter in a calculation table, the calculation table comprising calculation descriptors received from a plurality of host computers, the calculation descriptors describing desired at least one of data analysis datapoints and data index datapoints of the system, to perform analysis of the data on the plurality of host computers, wherein a datapoint comprises: a datakey which provides information to allow the datapoint to be properly routed in accordance with a type of analysis to be performed on the data, wherein the type of analysis to be performed on the data is based on the received index specification, a data value which provides the data to be processed, and a data interval which provides the time interval associated with the datapoint, and wherein the analysis corresponds to at least one of a detection of shifts in purchasing patterns, a detection of purchasing sales levels, an evaluation of the effectiveness of promotions, real-time performance statistics for analysis of website traffic, real-time website performance statistics for analysis of purchasing trends, and historical website performance statistics for evaluation of customer experiences.