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The section on "Phone Home vs. Google Analytics" is something I have been pondering for long time. I hack on the Arora browser. Now if I had Arora report back

by icefox 17y ago

The section on "Phone Home vs. Google Analytics" is something I have been pondering for long time. I hack on the Arora browser. Now if I had Arora report back with what actions user use (File/Quit etc) I could answer questions like: Does anyone ever use View/Source or do they all just open the Inspector? But even though people are using a Browser I think they will still complain that it is reporting something back to a server which is exactly what every single webpage they go to does, but somehow it is bad because it is from the desktop app and not the webpage in the desktop app.

richcollins 17y ago
"I think they will still complain" Why not test your assumptions by trying it on a subset of your users?
lu 17y ago
No, it is not "bad" because it is from a desktop app, it is bad because desktop apps generally do not tell the user if and when they send information to a remote server. How about collecting those statistics locally and asking the user every couple of days if he would be okay with sending them to a server, mentioning the reasons for doing so? I think if users had the control over that they wouldn't generally mind doing so.
masklinn 17y ago
> But even though people are using a Browser I think they will still complain that it is reporting something back to a server Not necessarily. The Office User Experience program has been very successful, and that's exactly what it does. Just open a little windows at the 3rd or 4th startup of the software (not the first) telling the user you'd like to make his experience better blah blah blah and to that end you'd like to collect a bit o' anonymous and non-personally identifying data (you can add a "view more" where you say which bits o' data you collect precisely) and would they be ok with that. And give the user a way to enable/disable it post-facto if they change their mind.
- weavejester 17y ago
  Yes, I think this is the right way to do it. Users usually aren't opposed to sending developers data to improve the product, so long as they explicitly okay it. I'd go a little further and have the application collect data and store it locally. When it has enough data, it pops up a dialog asking if the user would consent to sending anonymous data to help improve the software. If they choose to participate, it sends the data it has collected locally at that time and that time only (until the next major upgrade). If they choose not to, it deletes the collected data and never bothers them again.
thristian 17y ago
Mozilla are doing something similar with their Test Pilot project: http://labs.mozilla.com/blog/2008/03/introducing-test-pilot/ For privacy reasons, participation is voluntary, but they're promoting it as an easy way for people who don't know how to program and don't have the time to triage bugs to participate in the Firefox project.

by icefox 17y ago

richcollins 17y ago

"I think they will still complain" Why not test your assumptions by trying it on a subset of your users?

lu 17y ago

No, it is not "bad" because it is from a desktop app, it is bad because desktop apps generally do not tell the user if and when they send information to a remote server. How about collecting those statistics locally and asking the user every couple of days if he would be okay with sending them to a server, mentioning the reasons for doing so? I think if users had the control over that they wouldn't generally mind doing so.

masklinn 17y ago

> But even though people are using a Browser I think they will still complain that it is reporting something back to a server Not necessarily. The Office User Experience program has been very successful, and that's exactly what it does. Just open a little windows at the 3rd or 4th startup of the software (not the first) telling the user you'd like to make his experience better blah blah blah and to that end you'd like to collect a bit o' anonymous and non-personally identifying data (you can add a "view more" where you say which bits o' data you collect precisely) and would they be ok with that. And give the user a way to enable/disable it post-facto if they change their mind.

weavejester 17y ago
Yes, I think this is the right way to do it. Users usually aren't opposed to sending developers data to improve the product, so long as they explicitly okay it. I'd go a little further and have the application collect data and store it locally. When it has enough data, it pops up a dialog asking if the user would consent to sending anonymous data to help improve the software. If they choose to participate, it sends the data it has collected locally at that time and that time only (until the next major upgrade). If they choose not to, it deletes the collected data and never bothers them again.

thristian 17y ago

Mozilla are doing something similar with their Test Pilot project: http://labs.mozilla.com/blog/2008/03/introducing-test-pilot/ For privacy reasons, participation is voluntary, but they're promoting it as an easy way for people who don't know how to program and don't have the time to triage bugs to participate in the Firefox project.