On Fri, 2011-08-12 at 17:35 +0100, Simon Phipps wrote: > On 12 Aug 2011, at 16:30, drew wrote: > > > Hi, > > > > Well, I thought I'd start this list - unless folks think it is too soon > > of course. > > > > Currently the OO.o web sites, all of them, utilize a third party > > analytics firm (not Google). This is done by requiring that each site > > inject a small bit of JS in the page footer. (this was another > > requirement for the forums as an example and is used also at the > > extension/template repository) > > > > Going forward does the PPMC desire to use a third party analytic firm - > > i.e. Google. > > > > or > > > > Do we prefer to do it all in-house. (just guessing that their may be > > some knowledge on this subject in the overall Apache project :) > > > Before taking that step, it's worth asking if the project actually has a need > for web analytics yet. They were included on OO.o site mainly because Sun was > using the data as part of its business metrics. It's not obvious that the > same need exists in AOOo. >
Howdy Simon, I don't have a strong opinion one way or the other with regards to tool set - but I do think analytics are as important for non-commercial as commercial endeavors. Anecdotally - personal experience on the forum (from a while back), and using the logs not the Sun/Oracle gathered analytics. We would track where people came from, how many pages did they view and where did they go to and finally did they open a new topic (ask a question). For a support site the best scenario is that upon arrival they find an answer within a short number of page views and without having to ask a question. At one point we where getting way fewer inbound from search engines then expected - yup, yours truly had screwed up a setting and the bots weren't getting to all the pages..fixed it, and the sites listing on the SEs went up the page. The more detailed information has lead to workflow changes at the site and then tracked if those changes affected the outcomes in a positive way. Do we care if more users of the site drive a Ford or a Chevy not at all, but then again the overall project might care if more users are coming in using Safari on an iPads vs FF on a netbook or IE on a desktop..maybe. Best wishes, //drew
