Mymotech

Now that some of the dust is settling with the whole Google Analytics release sort of. I have had people ask me:

so what do you think of google analytics? have you tried it out?

i tried it when it first came out but i couldn’t get it working right and lost patience with it. i ended up getting angry at it because all the websites that now start using google analytics have a bit more of a lag because it has to connect to google with every page request. that, along with many of the ads people put on their blog sites now, ruin my marginal increase in web surfing enjoyment from my new 7mbps cable modem connection.

Ah haaaaaa. This has indeed been the case with many sites that rushed out in the early hours of November 14th and added the snippet of tracking code to their web pages RIGHT WHERE GOOGLE TOLD THEM TO. And that has been the problem. Urchin, the company that Google purchased in March of 2005 to enter web analytics has a methodology that declares that javascript tracking code should be placed at the top of the page to ensure that the client side script executes before a visitor has a chance to click on anything else. Sounds good in theory right?

Problem #1 – No one at Google bothered to question Urchin’s javascript placement methodology before the release of Google Analytics. Just thinking it through would have probably yielded some benefit. I am not saying they maliciously did this, just that they probably didn’t think of it.
Problem #2 – When they released Google Analytics they did not realize the scale on which it would be adopted. But just think for a moment if Technorati is tracking 23.6 million sites and most of these are blogs with really crappy statcounter stats then that means that the adoption of a free not-quite-enterprise level analytics tool is going to be big.
Problem #3 – Actually, I don’t have another problem I just felt it would be better form to have 3 in my list.

Well, obviously the question arises in the minds of those that are the thinkers, shakers, and melody makers, how can we solve this problem?

Since one of the goals of every website should be to provide a positive visitor experience you generally try not to place barriers in the way of visitors when they are on the way to doing what you want them to do in the first place. In the case of this blog it is to read the posts and make comments. Ahh gentle visitor, and this is why I am so highly paid, you simply place the Google Analytics code in the footer of the page. The page is small and will load quickly and while the visitor is interacting with the first post the Google Analytics script can merrily execute in the client browser without being obtrusive. After all it is just javascript there is no magic that makes it necessary to be at the top of the page in the HEAD tag as Google suggested.
I think there are a couple of thoughts that come to my head.
1. I think we are all too much in awe of Google sometimes. Sure they are awesome and smart and “not evil”, but so am I.
2. I think that Google Analytics is an awesome tool all the way up to the mid-size business level. I use it on this site and the reporting is powerful and flexible.

Thanks for the question Peter. As a small token of my appreciation here is an inline PR3 link to your site suitable for framing. Visit Peter.

As for the AdSense, they aren’t going anywhere for now, although in a month or two I will probably tweak the placement.
And I am jealous of your 7mbit connection. Here in Cleveland I only have 4mbit.

Disclaimer: There can be legitimate reasons for placing tracking code above the content on a page, however it must be carefully weighed against the potential detraction from overall usability and visitor experience.