4 ms·

Why? Having insight into website traffic is hugely valuable to webmasters.

dbg31415 9y ago
They shouldn't have to feed information to Google -- they just need to look at the logs on their servers. Y'know... the way we did it before Google Analytics came along.
- vilmosi 9y ago
  There's an entire industry around parsing logs though. Even "big data" companies outsource their log parsing. Requiring every website to create graphs and stats from log files is not practical, especially with websites that don't have a constant developer on it. Think blogs, recipe websites, restaurants. Google Analytics provides an insanely good value for them and it's a good thing. It's not like pre Google Analytics we had a golden age of website stats.
  - TeMPOraL 9y ago
    Why do you need those stats anyway? It's not like your webmaster is load-balancing your cluster using Google Analytics feed. Let webmasters use tools for webmasters, and get rid of the marketing crap.
    - mi100hael 9y ago
      The numbers are hugely valuable for small businesses in particular. It enables A-B testing of pages/posts, insight into which external platforms are providing the most traction, etc. Essentially, it enables you as a small business to determine where you should be focusing what's probably a very limited budget in order to connect with audiences who are actually interested in your product/service. There's no exploitation or sale of data or misuse of private info involved.
- return1 9y ago
  sounds like advocating going back to the middle ages because "people were simpler"
inetknght 9y ago
The website should still work without analytics.
- mgiannopoulos 9y ago
  The company would not (one can argue). Business analytics are critical.
merinowool 9y ago
Why is it? Do you mean marketing people rather than webmasters? Won't webmasters have logs?
- tempestn 9y ago
  In order to gain insight into how users interact with your website. This allows improvements to user experience. GA is definitely not only useful for marketing.
  - merinowool 9y ago
    You can do user sessions/workshops, which would be more valuable.
    - tempestn 9y ago
      Yes, but they don't replace the value of the aggregate data.

They shouldn't have to feed information to Google -- they just need to look at the logs on their servers. Y'know... the way we did it before Google Analytics came along.

vilmosi 9y ago
There's an entire industry around parsing logs though. Even "big data" companies outsource their log parsing. Requiring every website to create graphs and stats from log files is not practical, especially with websites that don't have a constant developer on it. Think blogs, recipe websites, restaurants. Google Analytics provides an insanely good value for them and it's a good thing. It's not like pre Google Analytics we had a golden age of website stats.
- TeMPOraL 9y ago
  Why do you need those stats anyway? It's not like your webmaster is load-balancing your cluster using Google Analytics feed. Let webmasters use tools for webmasters, and get rid of the marketing crap.
  - mi100hael 9y ago
    The numbers are hugely valuable for small businesses in particular. It enables A-B testing of pages/posts, insight into which external platforms are providing the most traction, etc. Essentially, it enables you as a small business to determine where you should be focusing what's probably a very limited budget in order to connect with audiences who are actually interested in your product/service. There's no exploitation or sale of data or misuse of private info involved.
return1 9y ago
sounds like advocating going back to the middle ages because "people were simpler"

inetknght 9y ago

The website should still work without analytics.

mgiannopoulos 9y ago
The company would not (one can argue). Business analytics are critical.

merinowool 9y ago

Why is it? Do you mean marketing people rather than webmasters? Won't webmasters have logs?

tempestn 9y ago
In order to gain insight into how users interact with your website. This allows improvements to user experience. GA is definitely not only useful for marketing.
- merinowool 9y ago
  You can do user sessions/workshops, which would be more valuable.
  - tempestn 9y ago
    Yes, but they don't replace the value of the aggregate data.