Google Analytics

By Twisted Intellect on November 16, 2005 6:20 PM | Permalink | Comments (23)

Those of you who, on a daily basis are checking out my source code, here on JorgenArnor.com, might have noticed a new piece of code. And if you're obsessive about my source code, you probably also know that the little code sniplet at the end of my head-tag is the tracker code for Google Analytics.

Will that make me regret forking out on Mint?

Well, for the time being I use three stat-tools, aside of Analytics:

Mint for the quick, aestethic overview - who sees what. Exellent for estimating the effect of design changes.

BBClone for those detailed tracking situations. (“I know who you are, where you live, what OS you use and the version of your browser!”)

...and AWStats for the long-time overview (how many visitors did I have this month, compared to January?)

Now, where does Urchin, or Google if you wish, fit into all of this? The way I see it, it's like a mix between BBClone and AWStats (only Google doesn't start with three capitals), designed to bring you all the stats you will and won't need - and does it the Google way, with simplicity in mind. Design-wise that is.

And yes, it is easier to get the overview with the pie charts, and maps, but still, the uncluttered numbers of Mint is still waay superior!

My main drawbacks are:

It's remotely hosted, so it's really, really slow.

It's learning curve reminds me of that of Photoshop.

As Mint, it relies on Javascript to work. No Javascript, no tracking.

The extra bit of code on each page...

I'd like to get down to the juicy bits, right away - on the front page, not having to click ANY links... No such luck.

But by all means, I'll give it a go, and who knows, I might fall in love with it eventually... Once I get on the top of the learning curve. As I did with Ps. Because there are positive things about this product:

It's free!

It's got all the details you could ever want.

It's got charts and graphs.

It's got a nice logo.

It's got Adsense integration, if you've got that...

...can you see I'm running out of argumentation here?

I honestly think this is a good product, but I also, equally honestly, think that there are too many other products out there; for Google to succeed.

If you're professional enough to need the kind of stats that Google has to offer, you've probably already got a stats tool.

Personally, I'm going to stick to my M/BBC/AWS-triology... --------