impl.emented» web analytics

Google is for Geeks - Microsoft for Nerds [Best of June '08 #4]

Jonas Bolinder — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 13:32:32 +0000

This week started slowly, but turned out really interesting (June 23-30 2008):

Working at Google vs. Microsoft:

I left [Google] because Microsoft turned out to be the right place for me. [...] I like engineering, but I love the business aspects no less.
[...] the culture at Google values 'coolness' tremendously, and the quality of service not as much.

In other words, Google is for geeks and Microsoft for nerds.
Tags: Google, Microsoft
The next version of Windows, code name "Windows 7", seems to build on the same core architecture as Windows Vista, which is a problem according to Randall Stross of the NY Times, since: "[Windows] has become an obese monolith built on an ancient frame. Adding features, plugging security holes, fixing bugs, fixing the fixes that never worked properly, all while maintaining compatibility with older software and hardware".
Tags: Windows 7
A recent study challenges the Long Tail theory and suggests that the real money is in the head, writes Matt Asay. The study may have some flaws though.
Tags: business
More news on the problems webmasters are facing with the antivirus software AVG 8.0. The pre-scanning of the links from a web search, that the software does, is now even more difficult to distinguish from a real user, writes the Register. I'm still using AVG 7, and it seems to continue to update its database, despite the updating was supposed to end June 25th. The annoying upgrade messages have also stopped.
Tags: web analytics
NoiseRiver, a FriendFeed filtering service reviewed by Louis Gray.
Tags: news filtering, FriendFeed
Top-level domains are finally set free, and will soon (in 2009) be available for registration by anyone that can present a business plan, writes the BBC. However, the cost will be high, probably around $100.000.
Tags: domains
Twitter died June 27th, according to Dave Winer: "So the conversation moves to FriendFeed. True, I am ignoring the flow I have on Twitter. Easy come easy go. The flow there is pointless."
Tags: Twitter
This week's bonus video, a perfect elevator pitch delivered by 15-year-old Daniel Brusilovsky for his startup Teens in Tech.

Tags: teens

AVG 8.0 Link Scanning Threatens Web Analytics [Best of June '08 #2]

Jonas Bolinder — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 15:46:05 +0000

This week was relatively slow, must have to do with all iPhone 2.0 chatter. A few interesting posts this week though (June 9-15 2008):

I've been using the free anti-virus software AVG for a year or so now and found it lightweight and non-intrusive. The last month, however, a message keeps popping up requesting me to upgrade to the new version 8.0. Apparently, some 20 million people world-wide have made the upgrade, to much annoyance to web site owners. As it turns out, the new version contains a link scanner, that pre-visits the search results from Google and Yahoo searches, masquerading as a real user. The Register reports that last month the number of visits had doubled on certain pages, thanks to the link-scanner robot. At first thought, this might seem as a good thing for site owners, but actually it is not. The fake traffic jeopardizes the web statistics, increases the bandwidth cost, and slows down all other legitimate internet traffic. As the Register writes: "[It] could destroy web analytics as we know it."
Imagine a scenario where the top ten results of all web searches were pre-scanned. This would theoretically lead to an overall ten-fold increase in web traffic. One cannot help but think that it is up to the search provider, Google or Yahoo for example, to provide safe search results, instead of relying on an external service scanning all results. The link scanning can be disabled by disabling a browser plugin, but that's probably to advanced for the average user.
Tags: web analytics
The Swedish blog search engine Twingly went public this week after a couple of months in private beta. Bravely, they claim to be spam free, though I think it will be hard to maintain in the long run.
Tags: blog search
Reblogging own comments made on other blogs has become popular since my own comment on comments piece. Both Tim O'Reilly and Fred Wilson have recently done the same. In a follow-up post Fred concludes that there is no difference between a great comment and a great blog post, and as he says: "Comments are often way more insightful than blog posts."
Tags: comments
Google Reader has an easter egg in the form of a Konami Code (Hit ↑↑↓↓←→←→ba). All software should have an easter egg.
Tags: trivia

Fun with Phun and Scratch [Best of May '08 #2]

Jonas Bolinder — Tue, 13 May 2008 10:02:44 +0000

Visual programming tools for kids, and a few more topics caught my eye this week (May 5-11 2008):

Steve Rubel thinks that FriendFeed is more valuable as an RSS and search tool than a social activity aggregator, and highlights the importance of FriendFeed's imaginary friend feature.
Tags: FriendFeed
Continuing the theme on visual programming tools, which in last week's highlights featured Popfly Game Creator, here's two more great free tools for learning kids (of all ages) about programming and physics: The 2D visual physics simulator Phun (see video below), written by Swedish MSc student Emil Ernerfeldt. The visual programming tool Scratch, aimed at kids 8 and up, with an impressive range of language constructs like loops and conditional statements, as well as simple event and message handling! Even though the possibilities seems relatively advanced, I've got the impression that Scratch is more accessible and rewarding to younger kids than Popfly Game Creator.

Tags: visual programming, kids' stuff
Bernard Lunn comes with some old-school sales tips, including "Close on every call", "Expect mutual effort", "Selling happens face-to-face" and "Ask for the order"
Tags: entrepreneurial, marketing
Google Translate now supports 23 languages including Swedish, which according to Google Translate translates into "Google Translate stöder nu 23 språk inklusive svenska" in Swedish, which is pretty accurate.
Tags: translations
Piwik, an open source web analytics software based on PHP and MySQL, an alternative to Google Analytics.
Tags: web analytics
There have been discussions on creating an open decentralized Twitter, mainly led by Dave Winer. The idea is motivated by the importance some people attribute to the service, and that a single company should not own it. Some even suggest creating a Twitter equivalent of the Domain Name System (DNS).
Tags: Twitter