STATISTICS

Two weeks ago, I added new statistics counters to both my main website and this blog. They track a lot of information, which could be very useful if I ever choose to analyze what they really mean.

For site designers, information such as what browsers most of their visitors use can help them choose which elements to include on their webpages. Knowing what search engines people use to find their site can be useful in targeting an audience.

For someone like myself, who writes primarily as a means to keep his long-distance family and friends informed of the goings-on and other interests in his life, the statistics really don't mean all that much.

The only ones I really find interesting are the "geo trackers" which show which countries the various visitors to my sites live in. For someone who has spent his entire life reading about far-off lands (and actually managing to visit some in the past few years), it's just "fun" to see that I do have a bit of an international audience -- particuarly with the blog.

In the two weeks since I added the statistics counters, the homepage of my personal site has had 64 unique visitors from the United States, 13 from Norway (where a good friend of mine lives), and one from Venezuela (which came in just a short while ago -- can't think of anyone I might know down there, although I'd love to visit sometime!).

This blog has had somewhat more variety: 94 hits from the United States, eight from Norway, seven from Canada, two from the United Kingdom and one each from Spain, Mexico, Australia, Italy, Hong Kong, Singapore, and Belgium. (Why none from China?)

Kind of interesting...or, maybe not.