Wednesday, August 08, 2007

Who are you please?

My blog's going global.

My friend Ziggy is very fond of mentioning how I never appreciate anything. Well, I'm here to prove her wrong. I appreciate Statcounter a great deal. It tells me how many people are visiting my blog, how they got there, how many times they've visited it, where they're located, and even what browser they use. I've had visitors using various versions of MSIE and Firefox, as well people using Netscape (I had no idea that was still in existence - I started my journey on the World Wide Web using that some eight odd years ago), Safari and Opera (I had never even heard of these last two mentioned).

You can, incidentally, see how many visits my blog has had if you scroll down and look at the pretty pink counter near the bottom of the sidebar on the right.

So anyway, like I said, Statcounter also tells me how a particular visitor got to my blog. For instance, if someone comes through from the link in Ziggy's latest blog entry, the referring link would show her blog. Now, when it says "No referring link", it means (and I have read and re-read Statcounter's FAQ section to clarify this), it means that the visitor either typed in the address of my blog in the address bar, or has my blog saved in his/her Favourites/Bookmarks/whatever your browser happens to call them. Now, in recent months, I've been visited at irregular intervals by someone in Germany, who I like to call The German (yes, I know, I'm very creative - for all you know, it's a Russian who just happens to live in Germany). According to my source, The German tends to visit my blog either from Ziggy's profile or, since her latest entry, directly from her blog.

In recent weeks, however, people from all round the world have been visiting my blog, and all these visitors seem to have "No referring link". I've had visitors from different parts of the US, Canberra, Aukland, and Norway. And all of them seem to know the address to my blog. I do realize that this sudden influx could be due to the fact that I've been posting a bit in the Blogger groups, but not all - the dates don't add up. Also, since there have been returning visits I assume they've liked something in here to bring them back.

See, here's the deal. I have very low self-esteem. And I'm a very curious person. So if you like this place, tell me. Well, if you don't like it, tell me in that case too, but be nice about it, OK? Use constructive criticism, please? And if you don't want to tell me what you think about my Meandering thoughts, at least tell me who you are. I want to know!

I've been called a spy already. Don't go there.

11 comments:

R said...

oooo so many mentions... I'm awesome.

okay, yes, no denying, of ALL things in the world you GREATLY appreciate statcounter... more than me even :( sniff. I don't see IT commenting on your blog.

(And I only whined about you not appreciating things ONCE... that I can recall)

Anyway, dear Thought-Readers... take a leaf out of my book and use it to leaf a comment. That is a terrible 'joke' ... why are people visiting my blog at all?

Anirudh said...

How do you know the German is a female??? ;)
I thought and I thought but couldn't come up with anything so I thought some more...where did I meet the traveller?? Then I read dustyrain..and the mists of obscurity cleared..it was in plain sight now, no longer a mystery, who this 'traveller' was... ;)
Me's great!! U tell...wats latest? wasssup??

Jules said...

Greetings from Las Vegas!! I responded to one of your Google Help Group questions. Thought I'd pop in and see what your site looks like. Very nice :-) Hope you don't mind me adding you to my blogroll.

Happy blogging

Gil said...

Well, I am not from Germany but I've been an avid fan of stat counting programs and Statcounter was my choice and recommendation for the free for those who have been looking for a free tool that is easy to install and use by a layman.

Recently Google launched their "Analytics" software which integrates with their adsense advertising system. You don't have to use adsense to use Google Analytics and IMHO its far better than any similar application I have ever seen.

BTW, I found you through the new Blogger profile system which now has links to blogger profiles with similar keywords. Being you a spy, lets see if you can find the word that brought me here using your statcounter...? :)

a traveller said...

@Anirudh...
How rude... I'm that forgettable, am I?!? :p

@Jules:
No I don't mind at all... I'm flattered in fact... My first addition!!! Woohoo!!!
Thank you! :)

@gil:
Well, Statcounter doesn't tell me how people got to my profile, but looking at your profile, I'm going to take a wild guess and say either sudoku and kakuro? They're the only things we seem to have in common! :)

Sameer said...

i like.

m not frm germany either..nor frm delhi as ur stat thingy might suggest :)

as fr the seemingly random visits u r so very perplexed over might be the ones who press the "next blog>>" button on the top very often.its just a possibility.

a traveller said...

Hello.

Nope, it tells me you're from the state mentioned in your profile. Very accurate, my stat thingy is.

And yes I did take those into account. Such people don't come back to my blog in general. They obviously don't like it too much. *sigh*

Sameer said...

i registered for this stat thing after having read abt it on your blog. but i cant seem to get a hang of it ..help me out..
neway nice meetin you too :)

a traveller said...

Hey... what exactly do you wanna know?

I've forgotten how exactly it worked... but basically, you make an account at statcounter, and set up your blog as a project there. They'll give you some html code i think, which you need to put in the layout section of your blog, depending on where in your blog you want it. I noticed you've got a link to statcounter on your blog, so that must be the option you've chosen. You can also choose as an invisible tracker, or showing the number of hits you've got.

Once you've set it all up, every time you log into statcounter, you can see all sorts of things, such as visitor path, your vistors' locations, browsers, IP addresses, etc. You can also label a specific IP address when you know who it is, so that you can recognize it in the future.

Any other info you need?

Sameer said...

i got a rough idea.things i had trouble with are:
1. how do i removemy views frm the log..everytime i refresh the page, the counter increments by one.
2. theres some trble with the location: fr example it shows my ip to be frm delhi...

neway thnx fr ur time..i guess i'll figure it out eventually :)

a traveller said...

yep it includes your visits too... you can get around that by blocking your cookie.

when you sign into stacounter, go to configure (the wrenchbar symbol) - there's an option there to block your own cookie.

no idea how to fix your location though... my account shows your location as mumbai btw!