JamesSpratt.org

Clicky Web Analytics

Posted on the January 10th, 2008 under Geek by jamesspratt

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Dominiek.com of Wigitize led me over to Clicky earlier in the week. I thought this one looked as clean and nifty as a fresh out of the bath Ninja and that as I currently only have 4 web analytic tools on the go, it was time to try another. These are what I currently have and their respective pros and cons:

Firestats
+ All it offers is on one page, no flitting around. WordPress plugin. Pretty integration of icons within user comments.
- It’s not Clicky.

Google Analytics
+ Pretty looking graphs (but are they necessary)
- Overuse of javascript means I can’t use it properly on many machines I have to work with.

BlogCounter.com
+ Neat logfiles showing a stream of pages the user followed.
- Main reason I probably still use this is simply because of my fondness of antipixel 80×15 buttons (see the counter in my footer).

Analog.cx
+ The default raw file anaylser that comes with Dreamhosting.
- Ugly and user-unfriendly as sin

Then in wades Clicky Web Analytics

Clicky Web Analytics, which calls itself web analytics 2.0 (not just because it uses the beautiful famfamfam icons, but maybe because there’s a nice AJAX bit to it) - ‘Spy’ is a real-time look at who’s looking at what on your site although this will be taken away from me if I don’t cough up the small fee they charge after the initial 21 day trial.

RSS feeds of the stats are a very nice to have but not vital inclusion so you could live without those if you stick to the Free edition.

A Google Maps based visitor map for integration into your iGoogle is something you’d have thought would have been a part of Google Analytics too.

Outgoing links and file download links are included natively and I’ve always thought was necessary but none of the other’s cared to include this.

I’m not sure how much more info can be gleaned from one tool to the next but after giving it a spin for the past few days, this is the best one I’ve ever come across (wthout trying the expensive Mint software). It’s just so much easier on the eye than the rest. A couple of screendumps here:

Dashboard: Spy:  (excuse the heinous use of IE, this isn’t my PC)