Forget Google Analytics, try realtime web statistics

http://www.rosshill.com.au/article/realtime-web-statistics-with-chartbeat/

by rosshill • 17 years ago

22 12 17 years ago

rosshill.com.au

RossM• 17 years ago

The live app (http://chartbeat.com/dashboard/?url=coverhunt.com&k=2ec3...) is really quite impressive. As far as maintainability goes the page load timer looks very useful.

hwijaya• 17 years ago

It surely looks great for eye-candy. But, not sure if it is useful though for anything real. I usually need some time to sit down and properly "digest" the statistics before we decide on anything.

greyboy2• 17 years ago

Hmm, this site has failed me from a usability standpoint.

After browsing there via Firefox, I was told I could not use the site without Flash (which I don't have installed for Firefox). That's usually strike one. But I really was interested in what the site had to offer.

So, after copying the URL and opening Internet Explorer to see the page, which I often do on Flash-centric designs, I got this notification:

=== You need to install Microsoft Silverlight if you want to use chartbeat with Internet Explorer. Or, you can use Firefox or Google Chrome browsers (chartbeat functions smoother with either) ===

I can imagine more than one scenario where users wouldn't be able to install Silverlight (or had painful installion failures like I did).

pbz• 17 years ago

The "users" are the site administrators. I think it's fair to expect an administrator to be able to install Flash or SL.

greyboy2• 17 years ago

I'm a system administrator and SilverLight has repeatedly failed to install successfully for me. I'm tired of trying to diagnose a problem when no usable errors are found.

However, the crux of my problem is that they are requiring Flash for Mozilla and SilverLight for IE. My advice for them is to pick one and do it "right."

But, it's their site, not mine.

arctictony• 17 years ago

Chartbeat isn't trying to compete with an analytics package like Google Analytics, they don't measure any of the same metrics. Chartbeat allows you to react in real-time when events occur. If your site goes down or suddenly a flood of traffic comes to your site after a review (good or bad) you can get alerted and respond without having to wait a day.

Think of it like this: Google Analytics can tell you how to better position fire hydrants and increase the efficiency of the fire engine's route to your house. Chartbeat can tell you that your house is on fire.

TweedHeads• 17 years ago

What would stop google to add a couple of lines to Analytics to match that functionality?

enomar2• 17 years ago

Scale. It's easy to give real time stats when you're only monitoring a few hundred sites. There's a lot more data to crunch when you're trying to monitor half the web.

_sgo42• 17 years ago

getclicky.com monitors over 200,000 sites and it's real time. Sure it's challenging to provide that level of service but without challenge life is dull.

olegp• 17 years ago

Why not use Clicky (http://www.getclicky.com)? It gives you both the ability to track users in real time using the Spy feature and get the same level of detail that Google delivers.

Forget Google Analytics, try realtime web statistics

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