Comments on: measure twice, cut once http://shaver.off.net/diary/2006/03/22/measure-twice-cut-once/ noise from signal Mon, 11 Jan 2010 00:40:58 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 hourly 1 By: RC http://shaver.off.net/diary/2006/03/22/measure-twice-cut-once/comment-page-1/#comment-804 RC Thu, 23 Mar 2006 02:03:16 +0000 http://shaver.off.net/diary/2006/03/22/measure-twice-cut-once/#comment-804 <p>quote "They also have a awesome tool (unfortunately on IE) which is a plugin that super imposes stats for your website (imsage and link clicks) over the actual site so you can see visually where people are going on your site. Very cool but wish they produced a FF extenstion that does it too!"</p> <p>There is something a bit similar in use at http://realtechnews.com/ where they track most popular outgoing links, fairly unobtrusively, in realtime. They use some javascript from mybloglog.com to do this. It works in any browser with JS enabled ...</p> quote “They also have a awesome tool (unfortunately on IE) which is a plugin that super imposes stats for your website (imsage and link clicks) over the actual site so you can see visually where people are going on your site. Very cool but wish they produced a FF extenstion that does it too!”

There is something a bit similar in use at http://realtechnews.com/ where they track most popular outgoing links, fairly unobtrusively, in realtime. They use some javascript from mybloglog.com to do this. It works in any browser with JS enabled …

]]> By: Dao http://shaver.off.net/diary/2006/03/22/measure-twice-cut-once/comment-page-1/#comment-803 Dao Wed, 22 Mar 2006 20:34:57 +0000 http://shaver.off.net/diary/2006/03/22/measure-twice-cut-once/#comment-803 <p>... should be "Since I prefer <script> inside of <head> instead of <body>". Simply removing tags <i>kinda</i> sucks.</p> … should be “Since I prefer <script> inside of <head> instead of <body>”. Simply removing tags kinda sucks.

]]> By: Dao http://shaver.off.net/diary/2006/03/22/measure-twice-cut-once/comment-page-1/#comment-802 Dao Wed, 22 Mar 2006 20:22:32 +0000 http://shaver.off.net/diary/2006/03/22/measure-twice-cut-once/#comment-802 <p>I recently disabled Google Analytics for my sites because the servers were not reachable for at least one day. Since I prefer inside of instead of , my sites didn't show up at all until the script timed out.</p> I recently disabled Google Analytics for my sites because the servers were not reachable for at least one day. Since I prefer inside of instead of , my sites didn’t show up at all until the script timed out.

]]> By: Jed http://shaver.off.net/diary/2006/03/22/measure-twice-cut-once/comment-page-1/#comment-801 Jed Wed, 22 Mar 2006 19:41:05 +0000 http://shaver.off.net/diary/2006/03/22/measure-twice-cut-once/#comment-801 <p>Like Robert says, it really depends on what you need. I'm biased to Performancing Metrics (performancing.com). The api is taking shape and will output some cool XML really soon, might be worth looking at. [/ shameless plug]</p> Like Robert says, it really depends on what you need. I’m biased to Performancing Metrics (performancing.com). The api is taking shape and will output some cool XML really soon, might be worth looking at. [/ shameless plug]

]]> By: greggles http://shaver.off.net/diary/2006/03/22/measure-twice-cut-once/comment-page-1/#comment-800 greggles Wed, 22 Mar 2006 19:34:21 +0000 http://shaver.off.net/diary/2006/03/22/measure-twice-cut-once/#comment-800 <p>I really like performancing metrics. I don't know ( or care:/ )about privacy policies that much, but they seem to get some good data for me and it works pretty quickly.</p> I really like performancing metrics. I don’t know ( or care:/ )about privacy policies that much, but they seem to get some good data for me and it works pretty quickly.

]]> By: Toe http://shaver.off.net/diary/2006/03/22/measure-twice-cut-once/comment-page-1/#comment-798 Toe Wed, 22 Mar 2006 18:14:43 +0000 http://shaver.off.net/diary/2006/03/22/measure-twice-cut-once/#comment-798 <p>Google Analytics is based on Urchin, which can also be purchased as a commercial product and installed on your own server. Not sure about pricing, though.</p> Google Analytics is based on Urchin, which can also be purchased as a commercial product and installed on your own server. Not sure about pricing, though.

]]> By: RC http://shaver.off.net/diary/2006/03/22/measure-twice-cut-once/comment-page-1/#comment-796 RC Wed, 22 Mar 2006 16:59:18 +0000 http://shaver.off.net/diary/2006/03/22/measure-twice-cut-once/#comment-796 <p>(I submitted something here about analog but nothing popped up saying this comment is in the queue for approval or whatever. Hopefully it wasn't lost.)</p> (I submitted something here about analog but nothing popped up saying this comment is in the queue for approval or whatever. Hopefully it wasn’t lost.)

]]> By: RC http://shaver.off.net/diary/2006/03/22/measure-twice-cut-once/comment-page-1/#comment-795 RC Wed, 22 Mar 2006 16:57:11 +0000 http://shaver.off.net/diary/2006/03/22/measure-twice-cut-once/#comment-795 <p>There is one halfway decent stats program out there, and it's called Analog.</p> <p>Analog works quite well, and is one of the <em>very few</em> stats programs that doesn't claim to measure things like "visits", or "how long people spent on your site", which are impossible to calculate. See http://www.analog.cx/docs/webworks.html for why.</p> <p>Analog outputs XML and CSV, supports IP-to-country (via DNS lookups), and as for privacy, well, you host it yourself.</p> <p>If you really want something hosted, Stephen Turner, the author of Analog, has a company called ClickTracks (clicktracks.com), which makes very pretty reports but unfortunately caves to marketing and produces silly visitor stats ( http://support.clicktracks.com/clicktracks/article.php?id=36 ).</p> There is one halfway decent stats program out there, and it’s called Analog.

Analog works quite well, and is one of the very few stats programs that doesn’t claim to measure things like “visits”, or “how long people spent on your site”, which are impossible to calculate. See http://www.analog.cx/docs/webworks.html for why.

Analog outputs XML and CSV, supports IP-to-country (via DNS lookups), and as for privacy, well, you host it yourself.

If you really want something hosted, Stephen Turner, the author of Analog, has a company called ClickTracks (clicktracks.com), which makes very pretty reports but unfortunately caves to marketing and produces silly visitor stats ( http://support.clicktracks.com/clicktracks/article.php?id=36 ).

]]> By: Peter http://shaver.off.net/diary/2006/03/22/measure-twice-cut-once/comment-page-1/#comment-794 Peter Wed, 22 Mar 2006 16:12:21 +0000 http://shaver.off.net/diary/2006/03/22/measure-twice-cut-once/#comment-794 <p>awstats is OK but not very advanced.</p> <p>The company I work for looked at GA when moving from our previous stats company and ended up going for WebSideStory http://www.websidestory.com/</p> <p>They provide very good stats inc country. They also have a awesome tool (unfortunately on IE) which is a plugin that super imposes stats for your website (imsage and link clicks) over the actual site so you can see visually where people are going on your site. Very cool but wish they produced a FF extenstion that does it too!</p> awstats is OK but not very advanced.

The company I work for looked at GA when moving from our previous stats company and ended up going for WebSideStory http://www.websidestory.com/

They provide very good stats inc country. They also have a awesome tool (unfortunately on IE) which is a plugin that super imposes stats for your website (imsage and link clicks) over the actual site so you can see visually where people are going on your site. Very cool but wish they produced a FF extenstion that does it too!

]]> By: Robert Accettura http://shaver.off.net/diary/2006/03/22/measure-twice-cut-once/comment-page-1/#comment-793 Robert Accettura Wed, 22 Mar 2006 15:30:58 +0000 http://shaver.off.net/diary/2006/03/22/measure-twice-cut-once/#comment-793 <p>Well, depends what you really want/need. Most are pretty much equal in capabilities.</p> <p>If your killer feature is geographic breakdown, perhaps you can just write a perl/php script to use an ip2country db to give you a breakdown right from your log file.</p> Well, depends what you really want/need. Most are pretty much equal in capabilities.

If your killer feature is geographic breakdown, perhaps you can just write a perl/php script to use an ip2country db to give you a breakdown right from your log file.

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