Thursday, June 28, 2007

google analytics

So I've just been messing around with the data google analytics will give me about the blog. Mostly I learned that people don't spend very long here, which - fair enough, the entries are quick reads. Also that a lot of people get here by googling "mellificent blog," and that if you google "eye pain" "green spot" headache, my blog is - unhelpfully - the first result.

But I also learned what level of detail I can get on visitors. For example, it has not only the name of my employer but a room number at my employer. Ok, it's not *my* room number. But still, that's kinda freaky. It lists J.Vo's employer, and EC's. I see that B.Nick drops in from work occasionally, and that Dahvay is responsible for 4.28 percent of my visits. (Hi, buddy! Your baby is way cute!) Or, ok, someone else who works at all these employers could be making repeated visits, but what are the chances?

I'm still kind of dissatisfied with google analytics on the whole, though - it's prettier than sitemeter, but it doesn't give me as much information. I'm kind of thinking about going back, despite the anonymous commenter's scary comments. Anyway, some blogs I (and probably you) visit regularly already use it, so we're already getting the dumb tracking cookies. Silly internet.

6 comments:

Stacey Pelika said...

Try Activemeter - I've been really happy with it since whenever one of your other readers suggested it! It's much easier to quickly see who's stopped by and where they're from...

towwas said...

You know, I tried it- actually, I think the little activemeter bug is still on my site - and I wasn't that into it. Maybe I'll look at it again.

erin*carly said...

woo, fantastic! i should try the google stuff. where, how?

unfortunately, i can't put a tracker on my blog . . . i'd love to see who *really* reads it.

towwas said...

It's http://www.google.com/analytics/ but you have to be able to put a tracker thingy on.

Coloradan said...

But you couldn't see me, right? Because my employer has, like, roving IP addresses or something. I think.

Coincidentally, I put Google Analytics on my blog on Saturday. So far I've learned that, as suspected, approximately eight people read it. And no one gets there by googling anything. It's like my private island on the Web that only my friends know about.

Annie said...

I went back to sitemeter actually after trying a bunch of different things. I think our privacy is out the window already anyway, we gave that up a long time ago...