November 26, 2004Web Analytics SoftwareI've been fascinated with the topic of web traffic for as long as I've been working out on the net. (Holy cow, is it really going to be ten years next spring?) Making sense of the trails left by web site visitors is an art. While every web server worth its salt creates a server log, it takes a healthy dollop of web analytics software to demystify the traffic flow. Tearing through the raw server logs can be likened to reading tea leaves. Well, it's not really that mystical, but it can certainly seem arcane. Each request made of the web server creates a new line of data that explains who made the request, at what time, from what page, and with which browser. That's a whole lotta love(ly) data. Manually scrolling through the logs while attempting to digest all of that data can make you feel a like you've been sucked into a Matrix screen saver. A good web analytics software package refines the raw data, providing a wide range of reports.
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