Web Analytics Redux

You gotta love web analytics, how else can you track the most innocuous information? It's been more than a week now since I last post my comments on it. After that I've sorta check on it semi-regularly. Last night something caught my attention but haven't really given it much thought until I was running.

One of the more interesting data in web analytics are the traffic you get based on keywords/search engines. Prior to June this year (my pre-blog days), if you google 'Gene Ordanza', you'd hardly get any hits except for a couple of obscure tech list and some Linux-related web site. (If you saw the scene in 'Wanted' where the protagonist is googling his name, you get the idea). But checking some of my traffic source last night, I found out that people are googling 'Gene Ordanza'. Ha! If that ain't flattery then I'm wary! Today if you google me, you'd get my blog and Linked profile (which needs updating) on top of the list. Among other things, it tells me that people are curious enough to click my Linked profile for it to reach for it to reach top page. Hehe, I'm flattered of course, but uncertain what to make of it.

Which brings me to some unrelated point (something I've thought of while running). Some people are paranoid android when it comes to their online persona. Of course there are valid reason for it, you hold your privacy sacred for one, and for another, you're wary of those mythical online stalkers, or perhaps some people might hijack your name online. But generally though, if you're not that famous/rich/one heck of a character, it's probably more of an ego trip to think that people are into you for some weird, sinister reasons. I could be wrong of course, but one of the many things you get while running is smorgasbord of ideas, all fodder for blogging :-)

By the way, as of last night, my pageview is 570 (if you're considering Google Adsense, you'd definitely want to display it prominently on your blog). But actually, my visit stat (number of unique visitors per day) is only 295. Hehe, so much for easy money :-)