In computer news this week, 04/26/2000

You've got to count on your counter - Web Counters and how they work - Part 2

Last week on Raw Bytes I talked about web counters, how you can get them for your page, and the problems you run into when your counter doesn't work. Today we'll talk about a topic very few people are aware of - what information web counters can give to the website about the people who visit.

KPBX movie critic Bob Glatzer's webpage is Movies101.com, and he recently switched web counters. If you visit this page, you may notice that the counter at the bottom of his main page looks different. We switched to a counter from Webtracker which is working fine now. But most web surfers don't know that a counter provides a lot of information to the website other than just the total count of people who visited.

Most counters provide detailed statistics that the website can access and analyze. For example, it tracks the total number of days the page has been using the counter service, and the average number of hits a day. With all the controversy about Microsoft illegally taking over the web browser marketplace, the Movies101 statistics show another story. The number of hits from netscape browser 4.0 is double that from Internet Explorer 4.0. There are also some people using older browsers, and some using Apple or other browsers.

62% of the visitors are running Windows 98, 20% running Windows 95, 12% running winNT, and 6% mac operating system. Interesting noone running Windows 3.1. In order to surf the Web you really need horsepower and a newer operating system.

As to where people come from; 44% come from .com domains, 6% from .edu education, 18% from .net, and the rest from a mix of .uk .au .de .nl .us .ca and others.

And when do people visit? Ah, if you build it, they will come; what every website operator hopes for. At movies101.com on the new counter it appears most people- 34% - are coming on Tuesdays. Is that cheap movies night somewhere? Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays are the next 3 in order of hits. And what time do people come? The hours between 5 and 7 pm are the consistently busiest. Ah, the web seems to be interfering with good sleep, because the peak time is at 12 am.

Then there's one other statistic - Return visitor percentage - determined by persistent cookies. All visitors to Movies101.com are classified as onetime visitors, even though we know that many people return over and over again. But we don't track that, because - unlike many web sites - we don't put cookies on people's computers when they visit the site. I've done many shows on the Internet cookie issue, and I feel it is an invasion of privacy. The information at Movies101.com is film reviews and comments for people to read and enjoy; there are no strings attached.

You can actually set your browser to not accept cookies, but then you face the problem of some web sites then not accepting you. Unfortunately, the concept of cookies was part of the initial design of the web, and marketing companies rely on them, despite the privacy issues.

WebPages can also have invisible counters, so that you aren't aware that there is a counter collecting information about your visit.

Counters provide information both to the web surfer, and the site owner. If you have a web page, you might consider one for your page. If you're a web surfer, you should understand that information is being collected about you that you may not want known.

For Raw Bytes, this is Frank Delaney

POB 222

Spangle, WA 99031

(509) 245-3736

fdspokane@aol.com