Google Analysis (or, obviously not a Techie)

A month or so or ago a stranger posted a comment on my blog. I didn't know the person, for all I knew no one read the blog (Ok - G. You told me you read and you posted once too, but I've been looking at blogs lately and mine is definitely not the most active on Cyberspace.)
It was abit of a wake up call - a blog is after all on the internet and the internet is open to every one. After two days of obsessing (how did he find me??) and muttering under my breathe who looks at my blog anyway Alister's continuous response of "Get a counter" finally broke through the haze.

A quick Google search later I determined that the simplest solution would be to use Google Analytics. Since that time, I have definitely not been disappointed and have in fact been amazed and entertained on all that it does. It has definitely opened up my eyes to how much information actually floats around out there on the Internet.

For instance, just by pasting a simple code into the sidebar, Google tracks how many of the visitors are new, and how many are returning. It tracks what country they are from, (Turkey, Romania, Taiwan - I have no idea who you are or how you found the site - well that's not true, it also tells you if people came directly or through a search engine or a link from somewhere else, In fact I even discovered a scrabble blog that had linked my entry on Russian Scrabble to theirs!

Beyond this Google can even tell me what browser visitors are using, their screen resolution and connection speed, and hundreds of other interesting (and to me probably worthless) tidbits - but can you imagine what this must do for marketers, and surveyors, Just by putting a code in the sidebar, they can design their sight around visitors - What if for example they find that a majority of visitors are still using Modems? They stop using the connection eating graphics.

While feeling slightly invaded at all the workings of my personal computer being up for the gleanings of whoever decided to look, I can't help but marvel how they figured out how to track this stuff.

For more on this see the Article Published in the New York times via the Seattle Times: http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2004271898_internet.html