Have you heard about Woopra? It’s a new website stats program that came out recently. In fact, it’s so new it’s still in beta. You can get a free copy, but it’s complicated. You have to request an invitation, and it can take a while for them to “approve” you (it took about a month for me). I actually got approved a while ago, but only just installed it yesterday.
Woopra is YASSP (yet another site stats program) that lets you know how many people have visited your site, how many pages they viewed, how long they stayed, what search terms/browser/OS they used, etc. If you use Google Analytics or Sitemeter you already know what I’m talking about. However, Woopra has some features that set it quite apart from the others…
For one, it is set up as a desktop application, with just a teeny bit of javascript on your site. As I understand it, this means that most of the processing gets done by your hard drive, so your website isn’t slowed down by the js. (Or not? Does my blog seem slower? Let me know.)
Two, it is gorgeous to look at! It’s all glowing and glossy, and things light up when you hover over them. Here’s a screenshot; click on it for a full-sized view. Beauty, eh?
Three, and this is the whopper. It gives you the information in real time. When someone visits your site, their info pops up on the screen immediately. When I made that screenshot, Visitor #25 was actually reading my blog at that very moment. In fact, I have enough information from Woopra to be fairly certain of the actual identity of Visitor #25. Between the host, the city, and the referrer, yeah, I am pretty sure. And guess what? If that person had ever left a comment on my blog, I wouldn’t even have to guess. Woopra would have displayed his name, email address, and even, if he had one, his gravatar. And if that’s not enough? Look at that screenshot again. Do you see in that upper right corner where it says “Start a conversation”? If I had clicked on that, a live chat window would have popped open on Visitor #25′s browser.
Question: how would you feel if you were visiting a website and suddenly a chat window popped open on your screen with a cheery little greeting from the webmaster? How do you feel about my being able to track exactly which pages you, yes you, visited here and how long you stayed on each one? Lots of people are lauding Woopra but in my opinion this is WAY too much information. I don’t want Big Brother watching me, and I don’t want to BE Big Brother, either.
Do you use a stats program? How do you feel about it?
10 Comments
Sounds interesting – I’ll have to check it out – I’m becoming a bit obsessed with web stats recently so the more info I can get the better ;)
I’m not sure about the chat thing though – people like the web because its anonymous – I don’t think I’d like someone perring over my shoulder…
Sounds like a little TMI to me. I wouldn’t like a chat screen popping up on me…
I wonder if it would be like an authour out in public and seeing someone reading his/her book. Do you stop that person, introduce yourself, and then ask what they think of the book?
I would not mind knowing if *you* knew I was reading your blog right then and there, Julie– but I think I would be creeped out if I was looking at someone else’s blog, for say, research reasons or because I stumbled across it somehow and that blogger was “watching” me.
I use StatCounter and it works just fine for me. I have hidden code on my template…I don’t see any reason to have a counter visible on my blog. The feature I like the best is when it shows me the most recent visitors pinned on a Google map. I’m not really too sure what good it does me, but it sure is pretty.
BTW…are you still game to give cartoon Fred a haircut?
i don’t use a stat counter, but i’m beginning to wondre if i might want to… chat window is a bit creepy, but how differentis it to fb where you caan see who’s online and chat with thrm? p’raps you need a warning device?
Mrs S, yeah, and that’s another possible drawback of Woopra. Very addictive.
Mrs B, me neither!
Valerie, jeez, if I was an author I don’t know what I’d do. But I agree, “creepy” is the perfect word.
Fred, I have Sitemeter and Google Analytics. Between the two I get plenty of info… but it’s a little more anonymous and doesn’t make me feel like a stalker. Just a loser, when my numbers are low. ;-) And yes, I’m still game. Sorry I haven’t gotten to it yet. It’s that summer lethargy…
Crit, I think it is different from Facebook. In FB all you see is whether any of *your friends* are online. And facebook is all about social networking, anyway, and you would know what you were getting into when you sign up. Woopra feels more like spying because you can see *anyone* who comes to the site, and they wouldn’t necessarily know that you know.
EEK! not for me. But since you can see me right now, be assured that I’m waving in a friendly “It’s only me!” kind of way…
Yikes! Now you know that it’s me!
Care, Terri — This beta version of the application has a huge drawback. It won’t ignore *my* visits to my own site. So as a practical matter (i.e. for gathering statistics) this thing is useless. I checked it out because it’s a curiosity but I don’t plan on using it regularly. Plus, 99% of the time it tells me there is no one visiting my site — big blank screen with pathetic little letters in the middle — and that is just too depressing. I’d rather not know. ;-)
I use Google Analytics and Traffic Facts. They both do about the same thing, and I’m not completely in love with either of them. I’ll have to keep my eye on Woopra. Thanks for posting about this.