Tue 08 May 2007
Well, at some point today, my Analytics account got flipped over to the beta of the new version. If nothing else, it's prettier than the old one.
A few things that I noticed right off:
- The Executive, Marketer, and Webmaster views are gone. Reports are broken into Dashboard, Visitors, Traffic Sources, Content, and Goals.
- The default date range for reports changed from one week to one month and the calendar was redesigned.
- You can now select your date range by calendar or by "Timeline", which is a cool little slider that you can expand and/or slide to select your range.
- You can customize your dashboard by clicking on the "Add to Dashboard" link on the details page for a given report. Once the report shows on your dashboard, you can drag it to wherever you like it best.
- The Map Overlay has become interactive, allowing you to click on a part of the map to refine your report criteria.
- Almost every report shows your results in an easy to read line graph (a huge improvement over the old one) by date, in addition to showing the details below.
- There's a new "Visitor Trending" sub-section that includes "Avg. Time on Site".
I'm still digging into it, so I'm sure that there are plenty more changes that I haven't noticed yet. Overall, it looks like they focused more on the readability of individual reports, which is a very good thing. It seems promising so far; it'll just take a bit to get used to the new layout (although I'm already starting to).
If you haven't logged into your Analytics account in a few days, go check it out. You might have been converted as well.
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Fri 27 Apr 2007
Before you buy a domain name and plaster it all over the place, check out 'Top 10 Worst Domain Names' from Unofficial Dreamhost Blog. Of course, these names are already taken, but it gives you an idea of what to look for in your own so you don't send the wrong message.
Here they are:
- A site called “Who Represents” where you can find the name of the agent that represents a celebrity. Their domain name… wait for it… is
www.whorepresents.com
- Experts Exchange, a knowledge base where programmers can exchange advice and views at
www.expertsexchange.com
- Looking for a pen? Look no further than Pen Island at
www.penisland.net
- Need a therapist? Try Therapist Finder at
www.therapistfinder.com
- Then of course, there’s the Italian Power Generator company…
www.powergenitalia.com
- And now, we have the Mole Station Native Nursery, based in New South Wales:
www.molestationnursery.com
- If you’re looking for computer software, there’s always
www.ipanywhere.com
- Welcome to the First Cumming Methodist Church. Their website is
www.cummingfirst.com
- Then, of course, there’s these brainless art designers, and their whacky website:
www.speedofart.com
- Want to holiday in Lake Tahoe? Try their brochure website at
www.gotahoe.com
Make sure you check out the original post to see 20 more and also a few extras in the comments...
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Sat 14 Apr 2007
I had heard rumors that if you put Google Adwords ads on your site, Google would index your pages faster. Well, either I experienced a heck of a coincidence or the rumor is true. I checked to see if any pages were indexed the day before I added Adwords and didn't get any results. Not even two days after I added them, I searched again and I had two pages indexed. The next day (today) I'm up to four.
So, if you are looking to get your site crawled quickly by Google, I guess Adwords is a good solution. Worst case, even if you don't get your pages indexed, you get some cash for click-throughs.
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