I started a new blog last week based on my exploits in EVE online…   really because this blog isn’t really the place for it - despite my recent mini-review, the politics and trading exploits in EVE are NOT the place on an IT blog, and I’m sure the editors here would promptly tell me off if I was to post all EVE content.

Anyhow I wanted to see how many readers I was getting, where the viewers were from etc.   Reason, purely my interest, as I want to see who’s reading my content, as a blog with no readers is surely not a blog but a journal!
I installed both Google Analytics and Feedburner on my blog.    GA to analyse the breakdown of visiting users, and Feedburner to actually track people subscribing to the RSS feed.   So I posted some content, and  publicised in a few locations, and I finally am seeing statistics.

Of the 2 services, currently I prefer Feedburner.   Google Analytics has a 24 hour delay on its statistics it seems, so thus isn’t as useful up front.   However Google Analytics does have extra detail on referrers to name just one item, which I’m sure in time I’ll find interesting - however it doesn’t give the immediacy Feedburner does.

Feedburner for example shows me who is reading the RSS and when, from where, and is instant updating- for example today I know I had 2 visitors from Denmark, though the majority of my readers are in the USA.

So… my question to you guys out there is:    Is there a feedburner like real time analysis platform for web hits - thats invisible on the page like GA is?

After day one of Cuil, I’m not super impressed

Half the UK day the site was down due to lack of capacity… guys if you want to beat Google you need to allow us to actually search… after all the primary reason people use Google is its search is quick, pretty accurate.. and seemingly always available.

Cuil, however, well, not so good on day one.   Several searches I ran came up with no results (on my name for example, which is very common - what are the chances of Google not knowing about a Dan Jones (at least one!))…. this may have been teething problems, but isn’t a good start.

In positives however, when I did try other searches, the results were slightly more accurate than Google.     The problem overall from my day one experience is the engine either comes back with good results… or nothing.

I’ll continue playing with Cuil today, and report my findings, but overall I’m having to stick with Google right now…

Do you like Cuil?

I don’t understand how traditional retailers of Books, DVD’s, Games can survive these coming years - Christmas especially.

They have as of this year lost my Christmas custom entirely - in fact I just placed an order with Amazon for what is £200 of presents for my immediate family. The other gifts are similarly going to all be ordered online/from telephone ordering. I now have 2 gifts left to buy ontop of the Christmas spending for this month - these will also be brought online.

Last year I did do 75% of my shopping at the shops due to missing the deadline for Christmas orders at many etailors due to having to work in the USA during late Nov-mid December. What surprised me was the stock situation - I had to look around for some DVD’s due to certain retailers being out-of-stock. The only win for me last year courtesey of pre-ordering was with the Nintendo Wii which I was one of the first people in the country to receive.. I avoided online due to guessing the preordering for online customers would be over-subscribed (which I was correct in!). This year I picked online as it was simpler to do, and does not require me taking a day off work to avoid the crowds.

This is of course good news for e-retailers, and courier companys but bad news for the high-street. Whats more insulting to me is most high street stores currently have their goods onsale at high street prices, and to insult me further charge me for delivery (making it more expensive than going to their shop). Whereas the new-world of Amazon, Play.com and similar shops is generally cheaper than their old-world establishements. If the old-world retailers want my online business they simply have to lower their prices - and have better systems!.

Example of functions being generally useful and not present on many old-world retailers - being Amazon saved basket/Wish lists. Over course of this year I have been building a saved shopping basket full of the goods I want to get people for Christmas, allowing me to finally push the button on the big order last night (after seeing that the majority of prices had moved downwards during the 10 month period the list was built up in). If only all on-line shops had such a facility.

In my opinion the shops that will survive the online war will be clothes shops (If buying an expensive suit for example - I need to try it on before buying). My big issue with the current high-street is in many cases I use it purely to check out what I’m going to buy online (in case of electronic items)… If I could do the same with clothes I would - I just have not found a online retailer thats cheap enough to justify it - yet! Any ideas?