Stats And "Don't track", And Custom Domains

Blog owners have been trying to block tracking their own Stats pageviews, for a few years.

This option has long been unusable, for blogs published to custom domains. Recently, Blogger Engineering updated the option - and the dashboard page with the link.

The new Stats option to "Manage tracking your own pageviews" is a start.

Unfortunately, it provides no obvious help, to people who publish their blogs to custom domains.

Start from the Stats dashboard page.

Click on "Manage tracking your own pageviews".

And you get an HTTPS link.



As we all know, blogs published to custom domains won't provide HTTPS access.

Change "https" to "http".

And you can make it work.



If you manually remove the "s", you can make it work.

http://blogging.nitecruzr.net/b/statsCookieManage

You can't access the "Manage tracking your own pageviews" for a custom domain published blog, by simply clicking on the dashboard link.

This suggests an interesting detail. Now that "Manage tracking your own pageviews" runs under the blog URL, it will be subject to script filtering - for "blogspot.com", any applicable country local domains, and / or a custom domain URL.

You may need to correct your browser script filter, to make "Don't track" work, now.

---

Owners of custom domain published #Blogger blogs have been wanting to block Stats from counting their own pageviews, for a few years. This option is now available - but not in an obvious way.

Read More

Blog Owners, Marking Stats Log Entries As Referer Spam, Won't Accomplish Much

We see the occasional optimistic suggestion in Blogger Help Forum: Something Is Broken, from blog owners tired of the referer spam, in their Stats logs.

Why can't we just tell them which Stats entries are spam?

This is, admittedly, such a simple suggestion - it surely must present part of the final solution.

If one considers the purposes behind referer spam, one can see a problem with having individual blog owners designate specific pageview entries, in their Stats logs, as referer spam.

There are actually multiple purposes for referer spam.

Look carefully at the entries, in your Stats logs. Are all of the websites, which are being advertised by non existent links to your blog, actually spammy? Chances are, if you look closely enough, you'll find one or two which just don't seem to fit the pattern.

• The volume of hits makes the pageview counts look suspicious.
• There's no link to your blog, from the websites.
• Looking closely at the content of the blog or website, it just does not look like the typical referer spam target.

This blog was honoured, as a false target, in October 2011. I have no doubt that other blogs and websites are also the targets of similar, deliberate attacks.

With referer spam used strategically, the spammers could simply adjust the volume of their attacks, to make innocent victims more visible, and more vulnerable to false accusation by the less observant blog owners, who simply want all referer spam stopped.

To guard against referer spam being used strategically, to attack innocent blogs and websites, any designations "This is referer spam!" would have to be complemented by "This is not referer spam!". Ultimately, all Stats pageview entries would have to be verified as "Spam!" or "Not spam!", to prevent referer spam from being successfully used as an attack technique. How many blog owners would want to scan their entire Stats log, daily, and mark all pageview entries as "Spam!" or "Not Spam!"?

Understanding the nature of referer spam, one sees that the only way to effectively combat it is to have Google globally examine all pageview activity for all blogs, over long periods of time, to identify actual referer spam - and to avoid falsely designating innocent third party blogs and websites as being intentional referer spam customers.

>> Top

Read More

Stats Displays Pageviews - Not Unique Visitors

Too many blog owners do not understand the unique capability of Stats - nor do they understand its limitations.

We see the periodic question in Blogger Help Forum: How Do I?.

How do I find out how many actual people are viewing my blog?

Stats does not provide unique visitor counts - Stats provides pageview counts.

It's simply not possible to determine, with 100% certainty, how many different people are viewing your blog.

Consider these environments, where multiple locations, or people, are involved.

• A single person can use multiple computers, simultaneously.
• A single person can use a mobile computer, moving from one cellular connection to another.
• Multiple people can view the same computer, simultaneously.
• Multiple people can share the same computer, serially.
• Multiple people can share the same Internet connection, serially.

There are other visitor meters besides Stats - and some other such products will provide "unique" visitor counts. Each product, which claims to provide "unique" visitor counts, will do so based upon specific limitations and techniques.

One of the most obvious ways to determine unique visitors is by comparing IP addresses. Surely, two pageviews from the same IP address will be one person - and two pageviews from two different IP addresses will be two people, right? Wrong.

• One person can use two computers, simultaneously.
• One person can use a mobile computer, moving between two locations (each location will have a different IP address).
• Two people can use the same computer, at a library or Internet cafe.
• Two people can use the same mobile Internet connection.

In each of these cases, one person may look like two people - or two people can look like one person.

It's even possible that two people can access the same page, from the same computer, one after the other. If the first person does not properly clear the computer, after use, the second page access will be from cache - and will not access the server. The second person, using that computer, will not show up in a Stats log. Again, two people can look like one.

Some visitor logs will drop cookies onto a computer. Detecting a cookie already in place, this indicates one person, returning - and successfully dropping a cookie, indicates a different person, right? Wrong, again.

• Again, a shared computer is a possibility.
• Not all computer owners will permit unknown websites to drop cookies, onto their computers.
• And some owners, when they permit cookies on their computers, will periodically clear cookies.

Some very sophisticated visitor logs can compare demographic details, similar to the Stats Audience display. Besides IP address, what can be determined?

• Operating system, brand, model, and version.
• Browser brand, model, and version.
• Maybe, location (possibly determined by IP address, again).

And finally, some visitor logs will compare IP address, over a given time interval. Arbitrarily deciding that all activity from the same IP address, over a period of 30 minutes, represents a statistical "single person", is a known technique. This is not a legally significant technique, however.

The bottom line is, as I state repeatedly, you simply cannot compare numbers from any two visitor logs or meters, with any degree of usefulness. Each product will have its own way of determining unique visitors - when they even suggest a "unique" visitor count. Stats simply avoids the uncertainty, and only provides pageview counts.

>> Top

Read More

Stats Pageview Counts Fluctuate Daily, Not At Midnight

One of the many controversial issues about Stats involves the daily pageview counts, which are reset daily.

Most blog owners accept the daily count reset, in principle - they just don't understand why the counts should be reset during their day, instead of at midnight.

My pageview count goes up during the day - but in the afternoon, it goes to zero, then starts over again. Why is Stats so unreliable?

The pageview count reset would be better understood, were it to happen daily, at midnight, for each blog owner. Unfortunately, there are over 24 different time zones, worldwide - and Blogger blogs are surely owned by some persons, in each of the time zones represented.

There are 24 time zones which roughly follow longitudinal lines - plus specific countries which have their own national clocks. WikiPedia identifies a total of 40 time zones.

Some countries span multiple time zones, adding to the 24 longitudinal zones.

Some countries span and divide into multiple time zones, others span multiple time zones and use one time zone. India, for instance, spans 3 time zones, geographically - but observes one time zone, offset by 30 minutes, as "GMT+5.5".

Most people observe a twice yearly 1 hour clock shift.

Many countries observe a seasonal variation, "Daylight Savings Time", when they shift local clocks ahead or behind, by an hour. DST beginning and ending dates vary by country, irregularly.

Also, countries south of the equator start summer, when countries north of the equator start winter. People south of the equator move their clocks forward, when people north of the equator are moving theirs backwards. If you ever try to communicate with somebody in Australia, from the USA, you'll notice how much relative fluctuation this causes, during a year.

To reset Stats at midnight for everybody, there would be pandemonium.

If the daily Stats pageview count reset were to be scheduled according to the local clock of the blog owner (which would be impossible, for multi owner blogs), there would have to be as many reset process schedules as there are countries / time zones. Additionally, twice a year, most reset schedules would be shifted, according to the local DST offset.

The only practical solution is to reset at the same time, worldwide.

Considering the almost inestimable number of rules required to schedule a local midnight count reset for all Blogger blogs, during the entire year, I suspect that the only practical design involves scheduling the reset, for all blogs, at midnight GMT. This means that no blog owners will see their pageview counts reset at midnight, during the entire year.

Everybody simply has to accept their count being reset sometime during their day - with the reset time varying according to the twice a year local clock shift.

---

Some #Blogger blog owners claim that Stats daily totals seem to go up, and down, during the day. They do not understand why Stats counts are reset during their day, instead of at midnight their time.

Read More

Stats And The "Don't track ..." Option, Used With Multiple Browsers And Shared Computers

The controversial nature of Stats and the "Don't track ..." option, which requires a third party cookie to enable the option to work, continues.

Even with all possible cookie filter properly set, and a consistent cookie clearing policy established, some blog owners persist in reporting that there are problems with Stats inconsistently observing the setting to not track their pageviews.

Not all blog owners realise that the Stats "Don't track ..." cookie is unique to each different browser - except when cookies are shared between computers.

Some browsers use cookies which are maintained as part of the personal profile, on the local computer - and some people may have cookies which are shared between multiple computers.

• Computers which are shared by multiple people may have multiple sets of cookies.
• Computers which are part of a local network may have a single set of cookies, per person, shared across multiple computers.
• Some blog owners may use multiple Blogger accounts.

Each of these possibilities will create differing cases where the Stats "Don't track ..." cookie, like other cookies, may or may not be present when a given person is surfing to the blog in question - and which will cause Blogger to count (or to not count) pageviews from the browser being used.

Some computers are owned by, and used by, multiple people. The operating system will encourage each different person to maintain her / his own settings and styles, and to identify herself / himself when starting the computer. The settings and styles are maintained in a personal profile - and most browsers maintain the cookies as part of the personal profile. If two people, who share a computer, also share a blog, each person will have to select "Don't track ..." consistently - or face having inconsistent counting of pageviews, when reading the blog.

Some local networks, where various computers are shared and used locally, may use profiles which are maintained in common between the various computers. Changes to the profile (including cookies), made on one computer, may transfer to other computers. Clearing or setting cookies on one computer may affect presence of the same cookies, on another computer - and may again cause inconsistent counting of pageviews, against blogs involved.

Some blog owners may use multiple Blogger accounts. Similar to the issue of blogs shared by different people / used on shared computers, blogs read on computers used by people with multiple Blogger accounts will have the "Don't track ..." cookie present, irregularly. This, too, will cause inconsistent counting of pageviews.

Finally, as noted, clearing of cookies will affect presence of the "Don't track ..." cookie - and will cause unexpected counting of pageviews. This inconsistency will be more common with computers shared by multiple owners, and with computers shared across a local network.

Many blog owners use only one browser, and one computer - and own and use their own computer, exclusively. Any blog owner, noting inconsistent effectiveness of the "Don't track ..." option, however, may do well to at least consider the above issues, occasionally.

>> Top

Read More

Use Free Online Website Display Services, To Diagnose Browser Related Problems

Look at the Audience display, in Stats. How many different entries do you see, in "Pageviews by Browser" and "Pageviews by Operating System"? Stats lists are limited to 10 entries, each. Do you ever wonder if those lists, like the other Stats lists, should be longer? How do we ever hope to observe our blogs, and see what they look like, for our many different readers?

One of the challenges of publishing a Blogger blog is developing a blog that looks good, on every reader's browser and computer. The number of combinations of operating system times browser brand times browser version - any of which can create a display oddity, when viewing any blog or website - is staggering.

How can we ever hope to produce a blog that's universally readable? We can always (depending upon the capacity of the computer(s) which we may use) use different browsers, to monitor ongoing issues which might affect our blog's legibility. Knowing the real number of combinations that may affect our readers, will using one or two alternate browsers (on one single operating system) really accomplish much?

One way that we can keep some running idea what our blogs look like, in different browsers, is to use an online browser display analysis service. This is an essential part of verifying proper formatting, as we make changes.

Free online services, like AnyBrowser or BrowserShots, will show you what your blog looks like, by simulating it on different browsers. Their displays, on your browser and your computer are obviously subject to peculiarities of your browser and computer, of course - but their services are a good start.

For in depth research, the W3Schools Online Web Tutorials will identify, in detail, which features are supported, in different browsers.

>> Top

Read More

Stats Time Ranges, And Pageview Count Recalculation

Periodically, we see evidence of confusion about Stats and the pageview counts, as provided in the various displays and time ranges, expressed in Blogger Help Forum: Something Is Broken.

My pageview counts keep going down!

or

My counts go up during the day - but in the afternoon, they drop to zero!!

or

My counts keep going down! There's no end to the drop!!

All of these complaints - and more - involve blog owners, who don't understand the relationships between the displays and time ranges.

We've explored the results of the ongoing referer spam war, of normal viewer activity, and of the daily pageview count reset which applies, periodically, to all blogs. Besides those 3 issues, there is some confusion about the relationships between the various time ranges.

There are 6 different displays - and opportunities for confusion.

1. The Dashboard "Overview" page.
2. The Posts "All time" per post pageviews count.
3. The Stats "Overview" page.
4. The Stats "Posts" page.
5. The Stats "Traffic sources" page.
6. The Stats "Audience" page.

The 4 Stats display pages each offer 5 different "Time range" displays.

• Now (the last 2 hours).
• Day (the last 24 hours).
• Week (the last 7 days).
• Month (the last 30 days).
• All time (since May 2006, when Stats pageview counts were first extracted) - though possibly missing one year or another.

Some blog owners try to compare the Stats "Overview" histogram (in its 5 time ranges), with the "Overview" counts ("today", "yesterday", "last month", and "all time history"). Unfortunately, the graphs and numbers are recalculated (by Blogger) on various schedules.

• Some are recalculated on a minute by minute basis.
• Some are recalculated hourly.
• Some are recalculated daily (but not necessarily at midnight, for everybody).
• We have no idea of the timings involved, for "Popular Posts" re ranking.

Confusion arises, when a blog owner refreshes a display, without understanding when the numbers behind the display may have been recalculated, relevant to reader activity.

• When reader activity occurs, the graphs / numbers (when refreshed, following a recalculation) will indicate an increase.
• When reader activity expires from relevance, the graphs / numbers (when refreshed, following a recalculation) will indicate a decrease.
• When reader activity is removed because it was bogus, the graphs / numbers (when refreshed, following a recalculation) will indicate a decrease.

Note that Stats bases its figures on access to the URL - not to the blog - and recalculates each display when requested, as far back as 2006. If you just changed the URL of your blog, you may see pageview counts which reflect access to another blog.

The different time ranges may not balance, when a URL change is involved.

Like the inability to balance the various per post pageview counts, the task of balancing the various graphs and numbers may be beyond the ability of some blog owners. Each count or graph has to be considered in its own context.

Comparing any two displays, in context with each other, simply may not be a useful activity.

Read More

The Stats "All Time" Display, And The 2011 Numbers

Occasionally in Blogger Help Forum: Something Is Broken, we see a curious question, which is repeated.

My blog Stats display is missing a complete year.

The problem is actually right there, in front of all of us - if we look. We showed this last year - for 2010.

Look at the Stats Overview tab, and the graph at the top of the display.

There's December 2010!
There's January 2012!!
What happened to "2011"?


My suspicion is that it's a deliberate omission, to get the graph to fit in the limited horizontal space. How will they get "All Time" to fit in that space, as the Stats display gets older, and "All Time" covers more years?

That being the case, it should not be that much work to add a little "broken line" symbol in the border, somewhere between "Septermber 2010" and "May 2012". Look how smoothly the line flows, in my graph, right through 2011. What does the graph for your blog show?

Fast forward to 2015, and we'll know the answer.

Life is full of mystery. Why not just deal with this one, and move on?

>> Top

Read More

Fluctuations In Stats Pageview Counts And Newer Blogs

Some owners of newer Blogger blogs spend time reading their Stats logs, and worry that their "All time" pageview counts don't always go up - they go down, too.

Why do the counts go down? Is there one number, that I can believe?

They don't understand that with Stats, you need to look for trends - not absolute readings. In the beginning, fluctuations are more obvious, and trends are less obvious.

Thanks to the referer spam war, and to normal visitor activity, even the "All time" numbers will go up and down - for newer blogs, which have less genuine and constant visitor traffic. And the constant rise and fall is scary - until you get used to it.

Newer blogs have less established readers, which makes spikes in both the periodic referer spam, and normal visitor activity, more visible.

With the 4 limited time ranges (Now, Day, Week, and Month), the spikes will "move" in and out of context - and make pageview counts in these time ranges fluctuate. When a spike in numbers "moves in" to a time range, the pageview counts will rise, suddenly. When a spike "moves out" of a time range, the counts will fall, just as suddenly.

With newer blogs, the fluctuations exert a "double whammy".

1. The fluctuations are more visible, because overall genuine visitor activity is lower. Less readers = less visitor activity.
2. Worrying over the fluctuations takes time away from working on the blog. Less time working on the blog leads to less blog content, attracts less new readers, and leads to less visitor activity.

More experienced blog owners know to use Stats to watch for trends - not immediate numbers.

The answer here is simple. Monitor Stats periodically - not constantly. Watch for trends, and learn how to interpret the trends. Spend more time working on your blog, because that's where the value of your blog lies.

Read More

Stats And The "Don't track your own pageviews" Option On Mobile Computers

As mobile computing becomes more popular, we're starting to see questions about use of the Blogger dashboard on mobile computers (iPhone / iPod, PDA, smart phone), in Blogger Help Forum: Something Is Broken. Most recently, we're seeing people trying to use Stats, and the "Don't track my own pageviews" option, with Blogger on mobile computers.

Problems with Stats and the "Don't track ..." option are not unknown, in the past. We've helped many blog owners with this setting, which is sensitive to cookie and script filtering in general - and to "third party cookies" in particular. "Third party cookies" may be filtered in any of several places, any which will interfere with "Don't track ...".

The "Don't track ..." option, when seen as a problem with "full size" computers (desktop, laptop / notebook), may involve any of various "layered security" settings. In general "full size" computers use a somewhat standard software infrastructure. While any of several operating systems (Apple / Macintosh, Chrome, Linux, Microsoft Windows), and various browsers (Chrome, Firefox, Internet Explorer, Opera, Safari) make use of Blogger an occasional challenge on "full size" computers, there is some common features between the various operating systems and browsers.

With the various "operating systems" and browsers on mobile computers, we're seeing more discrepancies in features offered. In particular, not all "mobile computers" have explicit settings to allow / disallow "third party cookies" - or even cookies and scripts, in general. If these settings are not present, it's likely that these computers do not support such details as "third party cookies".

Without the availability of "third party cookies", Blogger can't support the "Don't track ..." option. Here, I'll note that this option is specific to each individual browser, on each individual computer. One must set the option - and browse the specific Blogger blog - using the same browser, for the option to work. This is not an option that can be set on a per user basis, and apply to all browsers used by a specific user.

>> Top

Read More