I can see that, in the past week, I've jumped from an average of 7 to an average of 21 unique visitors per day. And it's fun sitting here watching the traffic, and how people get here. It reveal a lot, like, about people's sleep patterns and work habits... there's often a little flurry around 9am BST, when people in the UK arrive in their offices... and sometimes a wee cluster just after midnight, especially on warmer nights. And then there was the very dear friend who I caught google-searching for me on "bolgpsot"... nobody would guess she's doing a Masters thesis on how to teach people to spell...!
9 comments:
It's easy to spend a lot of timing perusing various blog stats, isn't it? And wondering what they mean.
My best search recently was from someone who was looking for "practical jokes to play while campling."
They ended up on a post about how my husband and I decided to start dating. The post was titled "God's Little Practical Jokes." Somehow I don't think that was what they were looking for.
I kind of like bolgspot though.
So how this work - you can tell who visits, when they visit, where they come from and what they have googled to find you?
That's really quite scary!
My favourite search term was for "why interfaith marriage won't work", googled they day we returned from honeymoon! And then there was simply "wot", googled from Malaysia, which led to my post about the "anecote wot proves there's good employment practice out there"...
And yes Erika, I can tell all that. Except that sometimes the geography is a bit dubious... they tell me my mum is in Northampton, and she isn't.
However, I've got two regular readers from your city... so I couldn't spy on you...
Grace
so you don't get a name or IP address, just a nearest town name and what they googled to find you?
What about if you're in their Favourites?
Not so sure about 2 people "in my city" - this is a tiny village and it would be astonishing if there was someone else working from home with the time to visit during the day.
I still think that's a massive invasion of privacy, if you think that we might google commercial companies or other organisations we really don't want to have all that info on us.
No, I just get the country, region, or nearest city... and not always accurately, either! In your case, I get the a nearby city of (according to Wikipedia), around half a million people. And I don't know who's saved me in "My Favourites"...
Invasion of privacy? Interesting questions... again, you've got me thinking!
[Does your browser show, below the FEEDJIT counter, a link "ignore my browser"? Click on that and you'll be instantly and permanently invisible... and I suppose the presence of such an option reveals that its a consideration.]
I see your point about the google terms. As yet, though, it hasn't happened. If I did learn something commercial that I shouldn't from a search term, though, what would I do about it? I don't know. Just keep quiet about it, I hope.
In terms of general blog traffic... I'm not sure. We don't walk down the street and expect not to be noticed. And given that it's my blog, I would like to reserve the right to keep an eye on who comes here - for example, if I suspected certain people (ie former/future colleagues/employers) were reading, there might be certain posts I'd take down very quickly. Is that fair? Or do I have to accept that I am writing for an undetermined "public domain" and a readership over which I have no control? I can't decide.
And in terms of some sites for children, there may be strong reasons for keeping a close eye on who visits, to deter known groomers, paedophiles etc.
Maybe it has to come down to what sort of website it is as to how fair/acceptable/appropriate/necessary it is to watch the site traffic.
Nevertheless, feel free to make yourself invisible!
Hi Grace
It's not so much the fact that you can tell I'm having a boring day and clicking through my favourites every half hour.... it's more the fact that if blogging accounts can gather this kind of information, who else can and does?
Can this information then be used to send me unwanted emails/viruses/tracking cookies?
Could my employer (if I wasn't self employed) track where I've been?
It just leaves me feel very unsettled that someone, simply by operating a web page I might visit, can discover so much about me.
Maybe I'm just paranoid.
FWIW I found this blog via Eileen the Episcofem, who I found via (and always link from, as I haven't favouritised her yet) the Order of Santa Ignora - but I betcha all knew that already! If you guys know how I found Mary-Jane maybe you could remind me. It is a bit spooky, though.
And, yes, your workplace can tell where you've been and as they are paying for both the internet connection and your time IMHO they have every right to.
Oops, sorry - I meant Mary Sue. Honestly now I wonder why anyone would bother tracking me galumphing all over the web renaming people after shoes, and I feel a whole lot less paranoid.
"Honestly now I wonder why anyone would bother tracking me galumphing all over the web renaming people after shoes, and I feel a whole lot less paranoid."
*Grace wakes the cat up giggling* I only recently learned what Mary Janes are when Crocs did them (in Britain they're just called "sandals", I think). I bought a pair for my hen night... I couldn't walk for about three days afterwards...
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