Having been involved in software development for the last 13 years, and spending a fair chunk of that developing for the online world, I am now (somewhat regretably) rarely impressed by the technology that crosses my desk. I often get the feeling I have seen it before, used it before, been there before. So having set up Google Analytics on this blog on 21st January, I wondered what it would deliver.
While adding the necessary code to my home page might scare the less technical amongst us, once I had it set up I sat back and watched as nothing happened. Having the "oh well, what a let down" feeling, I have ignored it for the last couple of weeks. But today, the whole world changed for me. I logged in and saw the results.
Wow, I am impressed!
I can tell you everything you might want to know about visits to my site over the last two weeks, and forever into the future. The area that 'wowed' me the most was the colour shaded map of the world, with drill down to individual regions.
Someone from Germany visited my site - can you believe it. I clicked on Germany on the map, and it showed the region ... Leverkusen - how cool is that!
View Larger Map
Now all I need is for Google to tell me the address of the person so I can visit them next time I am in west Germany and thank them in person - maybe that will be in the next version ;-).
So, if you have a web site, and want to make reporting the easiest you possibly can, I strongly recommend this free service by Google.
If you're wanting to know how to set this up for your site, then let me know. I'm happy to help.
Stuart
Thursday, January 31, 2008
Google Analytics - Wow, I am impressed!
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3 comments:
Thanks Stuart, Google are smart and know that by gathering (and in this case sharing) the data they can make friends easily and increase their power points - I will be adding it to my site for sure!
"Now all I need is for Google to tell me the address of the person so I can visit them next time I am in west Germany and thank them in person - maybe that will be in the next version ;-). "
As facetious as I hope your comment is, does this thought not disturb you slightly??
Call me half Devil's Advocate and half Mr Paranoid Pants, but it is IMHO getting harder and harder to remain anonymous.
If your comment were to become reality, I wander into a retail shop, I could then choose to join a mailing list/loyalty program and share my details. If I visit your website you take that right of refusal away from me. Of course the shopping mall will be fitted with CCTV & facial recongition software.
This is by no means a new concept, but somehow I feel that it is inching closer to fact rather than fiction.
Cheers
Miguel Sanchez AKA Biggles
P.S. Just because you are not paranoid is doesn't mean that they are not out to get you...
Google gives us such nice candy but it may all come back to bite us in the patookie.
When it comes to that I will burn my computer, buy a caravan in the hills (may a mansion) and live off the fish I catch. ( I may be very skinny after a while)
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