Analytics & Blogs

03-11-2009

Just going over the analytics for the site this morning, haven't really looked into them much aside from the geographic location of visitors. Some funky stuff in it these days.

Seems I am getting visits from people using their iPhone and even one person using Google Chrome (come on, say hello you). The majority of people that come to the site use Firefox (well done you lot) with a tiny sliver using Internet Explorer (the bane of anybody making a website).

I have a nice spread with operating systems as well. Windows, Unix, Linux, Symbian, Macs. Even Samsung, which I am assuming is the mobile phone. There was even somebody viewing the website on a Playstation 3 (which I would be interested in seeing since I never even considered writing the site for anything other than a PC).

Handy little service that Google provide, this analytics report. If I was the sort of person that wanted to make money from their website rather than just maintain The Bauble for my own entertainment it would be a very useful tool to have.

Which brings me to the rant I wanted to rant about before Eircom got on my Shit-Radar.

Back in the days when the Internet was young many people viewed those that make webpages as one of two things. Gods or Nerds, sometimes Nerdy Gods.

For the simple reason that it seemed like a skill that was beyond the scope of man. Magic languages that you typed into one program, only to have a picture appear online with another program.

Witchcraft!

Then online web journals, web logs, or "blogs" to coin the term, became a feature that cropped up. Many mortals approached the Nerdy Gods (Nods? Neds?) and asked them to make a webpage using magic, but one that they could post articles on without learning all the magic themselves.

This started off the whole "blogsphere" with various blogs appearing covering all sorts of topics. Subscriptions, RSS feeds, comments, all grew out from these websites.

It didn't take long for some people to realise that you didn't need to be a computer head to make a webpage. Anybody can make a webpage, hell anybody can make a good webpage. To make a brilliant one needs some know how, don't get me wrong, but to make a decent one takes a little time and work and there you have it. Maybe Frontpage or DreamWeaver if you really want to go the lazy man's route.

Which brought about more blogs.

Then social network sites sprung into life. Facebook, Bebo, MySpace. Somewhere a Nerd God thought this would make money and the people flocked to them. Don't get me wrong, I have a Facebook page. I even have a Bebo page, but they are merely there to do one of two things.

1) Keep me in touch with people that use those sites.

2) Promote this site.

See, on both profile pages I have a link to here.

Why?

This is my site. I made it, I coded it, I care for it and pay the costs for it.

Lately I have noticed a trend on the Internet. More and more people are keeping blogs, but on social networking sites only. Facebook Notes and Bebo Journals.

Where is the individuality that once shone through? Where is the annoying sound effects or the logo in the corner that you wonder whether it is a duck or a jester?

I don't know, but it seems a lot of folks are taking the easy way out, almost like they no longer want to be different but all want to conform.

A blog on your own site allows you to create a place that looks and feels how you want it to. It allows you to create a "brand" online. Sure I don't do anything with this site other than moan, rant, talk crap and upload bad pictures. But it's a brand nonetheless. It shows up in Google and can be used in conversation when somebody says "I saw your latest rant on The Bauble". It doesn't have the little facebook link attached to it in the Google Result.

A blog on Facebook makes you one of the herd. You have a limited amount of control over how it all behaves. How it even looks. It is almost like a lazy man's blog.

Don't get me wrong, there is nothing bad about this. If it's how you want to keep your blog all power to you. I have a huge respect for anybody that blogs. I constantly find it hard to come up with anything worth blogging about. Hell if you look through the archives you will see some massive gaps where I didn't blog for weeks at a time.

But it would be a shame if in five years from now the entire "blogsphere" had disappeared, becoming absorbed by the social networks of the Internet.

Then again, that might result in The Bauble standing out on it's own. Since I like it too much to let that happen. Could work out well for me. If you are the last blog online, people will want to read you.

Right?

Bit of a lengthy rant, bit of a ramble, but sure that's what I'm all about.

Blue_jester

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