I get various requests from time to time asking me which analytics applications. So here is my list of the current analytics applications I use on my web sites with a short bit of commentary on each one. They are not listed in any particular order. You can also check out my previous post which offers several free and almost-free analytics options. I don’t believe most Web sites need the insane number of tools I run but each one offers me something unique and, in addition, I like to test as well.

Clicky

Clicky is currently my favorite analytics application. The interface is excellent, has a Web 2.0 feel to it without going overboard. The best features are the real-time spy and the IP user lookup. The user maps and location information is very detailed giving you insights into where your users are, how they access your site, and what they do on your site.

General comments:

• The basic account is limited to 1,000 pageviews per day. Most users will want the $2.99 plan.
• There is an affiliate program which earns credits towards free premium memberships.
• Support is great and the site is very user-friendly.
• Clicky is also running an API contest currently. So far I know of one entry at ideAjax which basically is a sweet world map.

eXTReMe Tracking

eXTReMe Tracking has the absolute best user lookup tools that I have found to-date. If you want to be able to look at individual users and their patterns, eXTReMe Tracking does this very well. The rest of the app is strong, but not the strongest of the tools listed.

General comments:

• The free account is limited and requires you to place a graphic on your site. The pro account is $4.50 a month.
• The "on the map" feature is the best user mapping tool I have tried. In fact, Dateline NBC used it on a sting operation last year.
• The site does have a short learning curve and the interface layout could be improved.

Google Analytics

I have used Google Analytics since they first launched and the new version is very powerful. I don’t love GA but keep it running because it is generally the best comparison from site-to-site.

General comments:

• Some users report that the Goals options don’t always track correctly
• I am not crazy about Google controlling every aspect of my site including the site traffic.
• Overall, this is the most popular analytics app for three reasons: Google’s trust level, their ability to market it thru the AdWords program and that the app is free.

Mint

I like Mint. It is the fastest of the analytics applications listed and it runs on your local server. I used to believe it was better to keep everything on your local server with regards to analytics apps, but today there ASP model apps have really improved their ability to track and not lose data.

General comments:

• There is no free plan, $30 gets you a license for the current x.y version. Once x is upgraded, the charge is $15.
• There is an excellent support community who can help with support and extending the app.
• Mint offers "Peppers" which are basically add-ons to extend the functionality of the app. Most are built by the Mint community.

Quantcast

Quantcast is the odd man out in this grouping. Quantcast doesn’t provide as much detail as the above and is really used as a ranking and evaluation tool. Sites that use their plugin are called "Quantified Publishers" on the site. Frankly I wish more sites would use this because then it could create more fair comparisons. Quantcast is what Alexa wishes it would be.

Final summary

I left Complete off the list because I am currently working with them to attempt to rectify the reporting issues on CN. Once they have corrected the issues, I will post my thoughts on Complete. I have not included the "professional" level packages such as Webtrends, Omniture and WebSideStory. Lastly, many web hosting packages provide basic metrics applications. I didn’t include these because I find that they are generally worthless and out-of-date.

What tools are you using? Is it one (or more) of the above? Are there others I should be reviewing/testing?

Over the past few days I have been using a fairly new social networking tool for food and recipes. GroupRecipes is a very well crafted niche social network. Similar to RecipeMatcher (CN coverage) which finds recipes based on what is in your cupboard, GroupRecipes finds matches based on your likes and dislikes. I do wonder if there is a recipe wiki out there. I

The site includes:

• A robot that learns from what you like and dislike and makes smarter recommendations each time
• Videos – about 200 videos (wish there was an embed option)
• Friends – you can friend people and become part of their networks
• Groups – join groups based on the foods you like
• Places – check out local eateries and rate them (I think this would be better served with a partnership with Yelp)
• Recipes – yep they have these too. I like their "alteration" feature as it allows you to offer suggestions on how to improve the recipe

Check out my video review below:

Just in from Google HQ – news that Google has acquired Postini for $625 million. Postini has 300 employes and handles message security, archiving, encryption, and policy enforcement. Postini will become a wholly-owned subsidiary of Google and the deal should close by the end of the 3rd quarter 2007. The Google blog has just updated with the news. There is also a very detailed FAQ document for download.

From the Google news bulletin:

“With this transaction, we’re reinforcing our commitment to delivering compelling hosted applications to businesses of all sizes. With the addition of Postini, our apps are not just simple and appealing to users — they can also streamline the complex information security mandates within these organizations,” said Eric Schmidt, Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer of Google.

“The response to Google Apps has been tremendous, with more than 1,000 small businesses signing up for the service every day. At the same time, large businesses have been reluctant to move to hosted applications due to issues of security and corporate compliance. By adding Postini products to Google’s technology, businesses no longer have to choose — employees get the intuitive products they want, and the company achieves the security and assurance it needs,” said Dave Girouard, Vice President and General Manager, Google Enterprise.

“As the market leader in on-demand secure communications and compliance solutions, Postini complements Google perfectly. We share a commitment to providing enterprise customers with compelling technology alternatives. This is an exciting milestone, one that will certainly lead to the next level of rapid innovation,” said Quentin Gallivan, President and Chief Executive Officer of Postini.

“Postini’s founding vision is to bring to market technology solutions that address enterprise messaging problems in a different way. Our on-demand offering liberates businesses from the burdens associated with traditional on-premise solutions. We are proud of what we have done to achieve our vision on behalf of our customers, and combining Google and Postini is a powerful next step in this creative journey,” said Scott Petry, Founder, Chief Technical Officer, and Executive Vice President of Product Development at Postini.

I guess this continues Google’s pace of acquiring one large company a week.

This morning I have been testing a new meeting management tool called ikordo. I am very impressed with what I have seen so far. ikordo is a "smart" meeting planner in that you give it a time/day range, tell it whom to invite and it does the legwork to figure out what time your meeting will work.

Check out my video review below:

Pete asked the following question on Mashable tonight, "Question: What Should Technorati Do?" He points to an article in Forbes Magazine in which Rachel Rosmarin notes, "Blog search-engine startup Technorati's own technorati, including its chief technologist and vice president of engineering, are leaving. With these heavy-hitters will go some of the site's geek credibility." I agree with Rachel as I believe Tantek was the face to the developer community and he had great respect from most Web conference attendees.

I thought I would share the two ways I use Technorati: checking inbound links and researching articles on sites I follow. I check Technorati for inbound links on the articles I write daily (ok hourly). I try my best to join the discussions on the sites that link to my articles. I enjoy watching how people react to what I write and learning from the posts. Trackbacks used to work but I find that fewer sites send and accept trackbacks these days.

The other way I use Technorati is for research on sites I follow. Let me illustrate an example. Pete authored an article titled, "Backfence Closes, Citizen Journalism a Failure" earlier this week. I read the article and then clicked over to Technorati to see who linked to the article. Currently there are 14 links to his article. From there, I can visit the sites that interest me, join the conversation and also potentially contact the site to see if they have heard of CN. It's a great blog-to-blog networking tool. I can also follow what the reaction is to Pete's post. Is there any feedback I can learn from? I consider this aspect to be a great research and learning tool.

Pete notes, "There are many directions Technorati could move in: towards MyBlogLog, towards Digg, becoming a media portal and so on. But all seem like me-too attempts that are destined to fail. Most likely we’ll see an acquisition at this juncture." I agree that these ideas have the failure stamp on them. My take would be for Technorati to move into "authority ranking and buzz metrics" similar to what BuzzLogic (CN interview) is doing in this space. Technorati already does a great job of tracking links across the Web, now put those links to a better use than just "Authority" rankings. I won't even go into my thoughts about the joke that Authority is here, I will save that for another post.

I would suggest that Technorati leave the search engine piece behind. Focus on helping companies (and bloggers/web sites) track and measure buzz. This is where the real money is. They could sell various plans for cash instead of relying on advertisements as well. Check out our previous Technorati coverage.

By now you know that people are selling invites to Pownce on eBay. Duncan and Rafe go over the details of the auctions which range from 1cent to $5.00. Of course you can get an invite for free but people are bidding on these auctions.

I finally realized the possibilities of using eBay to promote your product so I am very excited to announce that this morning I placed a "Limited Edition Hand Signed Genuine Authentic" CenterNetworks PostCard auction on eBay. Close your eyes and imagine all of the possibilities that are possible when you own your own signed PostCard. Don't be the dork at the next Facebook launch party without one of these PostCards.

Auction price is set to open at $29.98 and I have worked with my shipping partner to keep the shipping at a mere 41cents.

Bid Now!!!

In May, James Thomas noted five reasons that Twitter sucks. One of his reasons has been dealt with (the cat is dead) but the others remain.

I have watched more people use it as a business tool. Mashable uses it to post tweets of their new posts (I do sometimes as well), Jason Calacanis uses it to pimp his tool, Rafe tests things using Twitter, Marshall posts random interesting findings and Patricia uses it to let us know where the good eateries are in her area.

So what's the number 1 reason I dislike Twitter? The inability to follow a conversation. Here are three examples of what I mean:

In this example, user "trib" is clearly responding to user "purecaffiene" but what was purecaffiene's note to which trib replied? You see, I am not a follower or friend of purecaffiene so I have no idea.

Here is another good example of lack of conversation followthru. Here user "RexDixon" notes to user "marshallk" something about Gmail chat. In this example, I can click "in reply to marshallk" to view the initial status. But there is no threading so if another user was to reply, I would not be able to view it.

Now here is another example of lack of conversation. User "missrogue" is clearly giving some important piece of information to user "dorismith" but what was the initial question? Do I need to play Columbo here?

As you can see from these three examples, Twitter is broken. Maybe it's my history of heavy message board use that makes me believe that Twitter needs a threaded reply system such as Pownce has. Here is a simple example of how easy it is to follow the story on Pownce:

See how easy this is to follow? Leah started a conversation by stating that it's Friday and posted a link. Users "Vincent X" and "Andy H" replied. Andy also could have replied to both Vincent and Leah had he desired.

Besides James' reasons, the lack of threaded discussions makes Twitter basically worthless in my eyes. And naturally if they add it now they will be a Pownce-clone.