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I think it's just an ad. It replaced the Co2Stats banner. If Mixpanel or google analytics were being used, I would have seen the inserted javascript. At least n

by mahmud 17y ago

I think it's just an ad. It replaced the Co2Stats banner. If Mixpanel or google analytics were being used, I would have seen the inserted javascript. At least not client side.

patio11 17y ago
Mixpanel has an API where you can have the server provided data without needing the client to cooperate by executing your Javascript. Aside from the obvious accuracy issues this addresses (particular for technical audience who disable things by default), I find it is much easier to do more sophisticated action tracking on the server side rather than having to abuse GA to do it via setting Javascript variables and praying it actually works for a change.
- dpcan 17y ago
  The API appears to be for getting data out - creating your custom dashboard. Just getting data from a pulled image won't provide browser data or referring data. Javascript is unfortunately a pretty important requirement to get accurate data about visitors.
  - patio11 17y ago
    You are incorrect, they also have an API for data entry, which you can use to register arbitrary data from the server. (Including, I suppose, browser versions or referring URLs since those are, after all, sent in with the HTTP requests. I haven't actually implemented those since they aren't useful for my purposes.) See here for how I use the API through Rails (sans Javascript): http://www.bingocardcreator.com/articles/tracking-with-mixpanel.htm http://www.bingocardcreator.com/articles/tracking-with-mixpa...
    - dpcan 17y ago
      In my defense, their homepage says in exacltly these words "API TO GET DATA OUT" That being said... So you can use all the browser variables via PHP/Rails/Whatever and then use Curl (for example) to post stats to their servers? Cool. I was referring to the ability to do this by simply placing an image on your site which would require some JS, but I didn't think about it from this angle.
jacquesm 17y ago
The co2stats banner is still there (the green thingy on the left). Mixpanel could simply use the data tracked from the image, if you view the page source you'll see that it is loaded from their servers. There are some limitations to capturing data like that though (and some advantages too). I'm starting to wonder now if HN actually used analytics or if I'm hallucinating. I'm pretty sure I saw that tag at some point... Alzheimers...
- mahmud 17y ago
  co2stats wasn't there when I wrote that.

by mahmud 17y ago

I think it's just an ad. It replaced the Co2Stats banner. If Mixpanel or google analytics were being used, I would have seen the inserted javascript. At least not client side.

patio11 17y ago

Mixpanel has an API where you can have the server provided data without needing the client to cooperate by executing your Javascript. Aside from the obvious accuracy issues this addresses (particular for technical audience who disable things by default), I find it is much easier to do more sophisticated action tracking on the server side rather than having to abuse GA to do it via setting Javascript variables and praying it actually works for a change.

dpcan 17y ago
The API appears to be for getting data out - creating your custom dashboard. Just getting data from a pulled image won't provide browser data or referring data. Javascript is unfortunately a pretty important requirement to get accurate data about visitors.
- patio11 17y ago
  You are incorrect, they also have an API for data entry, which you can use to register arbitrary data from the server. (Including, I suppose, browser versions or referring URLs since those are, after all, sent in with the HTTP requests. I haven't actually implemented those since they aren't useful for my purposes.) See here for how I use the API through Rails (sans Javascript): http://www.bingocardcreator.com/articles/tracking-with-mixpanel.htm http://www.bingocardcreator.com/articles/tracking-with-mixpa...
  - dpcan 17y ago
    In my defense, their homepage says in exacltly these words "API TO GET DATA OUT" That being said... So you can use all the browser variables via PHP/Rails/Whatever and then use Curl (for example) to post stats to their servers? Cool. I was referring to the ability to do this by simply placing an image on your site which would require some JS, but I didn't think about it from this angle.

jacquesm 17y ago

The co2stats banner is still there (the green thingy on the left). Mixpanel could simply use the data tracked from the image, if you view the page source you'll see that it is loaded from their servers. There are some limitations to capturing data like that though (and some advantages too). I'm starting to wonder now if HN actually used analytics or if I'm hallucinating. I'm pretty sure I saw that tag at some point... Alzheimers...

mahmud 17y ago
co2stats wasn't there when I wrote that.