Mapsurface - another very slick site statistics thingamajing
Andy Budd reported yesterday about mapsurface , a new site statistics tool that does all the others do, but with the difference that it shows the data live on the site without the admin or statistics-interested visitors having to log into a backend editor.
I really like what I can see on Andy’s site and signed up for a test drive. However, I really hope that there is a chance to password-protect the stats, as for now it is a good blogger or web admin “pat our own back” tool, but will be hard to sell on the market.
Nearly every client I ever had wanted statistics tools, hardly any did anything useful with the collected information, but what all agreed on was that they didn’t want their competitors to see their stats.
Therefore it’d be a clever move (unless that is already anticipated in the full version) to allow for different levels of access - with a preliminary log-in on the site.
You can test mapsurface on the developers blog: Glenn Jones on his very own mapsurface or sign up for a test run on http://www.mapsurface.com.
February 23rd, 2006 at 4:16 pm
I agree with getting different access levels for this. I checked this out yesterday and signed up for a free trial as well. I currently use an array of things for our statistics and it works out very well.
Personally, I make it a point to view our logs/stats every day before I begin working. I work closely with the marketing department in getting reports of our site and its uses/traffic. The mistake with many is to IGNORE them - but this is the most valuable asset you have as a developer because, without knowing how your site is used - its pointless to proceed into new things (would result in both wasted time and money).
I am excited to see what mapsurface can do…
February 25th, 2006 at 2:12 pm
Unlike other trackers, Mapsurface makes your visitor data viewable in the same window as your site, via a floating widget. And perhaps best of all, the page isn’t weighed down with the Mapsurface code for all visitors, but instead is downloaded on demand when a user hits the proper key combination. This is Javascript user-friendliness at its best.