Sunday, October 21, 2007

Google Analytics

I've been pretty interested by this Google Analytics traffic analysis suite. Traditionally, I've always used Analog as my web stats program, but I really like the reporting offered by Google. You can get map views of where your visitors come from, referring pages, etc. All you have to do is setup a profile with Google and add some JavaScript to each of your pages. Google takes care of the rest.

The only thing I'm not crazy about is handing over data about a site's usage patterns to Google -- or any other external entity, for that matter. Analytics is quick and easy to set up and may be a good choice for users who are not familiar with applications that parse your web server logs or for personal web pages. In fact, I am using GA to get usage stats on this blog. But, I don't think I would use it for anything work-related.

Anyway, check it out. It's a pretty nice suite and very easy to set up.

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