Counters

Having started this blog, I've often wondered if there were people reading it as there were not many comments left. Apart from the few people who spoke to me personally about what they read, there was no other indication of the presence of visitors to the blog. Someone then suggested that I install a counter to the blog. So I looked at that idea, investigated a little, and on the 20th of July, I activated "Analytics" on the blogsite. Further research showed that there were other programmes available, and as they were free I then attached "sitemeter" on the 7th of August 2008.

Both programmes not only allowed me to keep track of the number of visitors, but also other characteristics like, location, browsers used, time on site but not who was actually visiting. This because most surfers use dynamic IPs which are assigned every time they log on the web. Fixed IP users are identified, however those are few and far between.

Analytics provides lots of detailed information, however it is very difficult to trace the traits to each individual user. Sitemeter however, displays each user and their traits individually.

So, with Analytics, it will display that 20 visitors used Firefox as a browser; while sitemeter will display, say, 50 visitors of which 20 of them would list Firefox as the browser used. ( I would have to count up the 20 visitors individually) 

Well... enough technicalities!! So what has these counters shown?

According to Analytics, since the 20th of July, I've had 120 visitors (including my visits) to my site, of which 52 are "absolutely unique" visitors.

There have been visitors from 18 countries; including Peru in the West to Japan in the East; Argentina in the South to Moscow in the North.

With sitemeter, I was able to identify a visitor from Flushing, New York who visited the blog after googling "Antonio Bourdain". I wonder??..... could this be a visit from Tony, after a personal vanity search?

So the next time you surf the web, please note... Big Brother may be watching!!