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Show HN: I replaced Google Analytics with simple log-based analytics

benhoyt.com

31–40 of 143 posts

Re: Show HN: I replaced Google Analytics with simple log-based analytics

#31
post #2

If you’re not a fan of big brother you probably should be logging to bare metal instead of Amazon S3.

https://aws.amazon.com/compliance/data-privacy-faq/ "We do not access or use your content for any purpose without your consent. We never use your content or derive information from it for marketing or advertising"

With privacy, I personally prefer not to have to rely on trust. Encryption is better than trusting other people not to invade your privacy.

Re: Show HN: I replaced Google Analytics with simple log-based analytics

#32
post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think it is incredibly fair to say that you shouldn't put data onto the servers of a company if you mind them reading that data. Why should I assume they aren't? At a bare minimum, the metadata is being actively consumed by the parent company. I don't think this is AWS specific at all.

If this was the case, I think we would have had some amazon whistleblower already blow this info and would be widely reported on.

I agree, it probably hasn't happened. Yet, that is. It might next year, and we might have a whistle blower then.

Re: Show HN: I replaced Google Analytics with simple log-based analytics

#33
post #21
post #19

Why not use a self-hosted analytics software like https://matomo.org/ ?

I wish they had a simple Docker image available with everything setup and configurable from a single file. The installation process is complex and under documented, IMHO. But the software is pretty nice!

https://hub.docker.com/_/matomo ?

Re: Show HN: I replaced Google Analytics with simple log-based analytics

#36
post #19

Why not use a self-hosted analytics software like https://matomo.org/ ?

Still a lot of overhead though, and regularly blocked by privacy minded individuals.

Matomo can work with the logs only if needed. Providing all the benefits like respecting user privacy and working around ad blockers.

Re: Show HN: I replaced Google Analytics with simple log-based analytics

#38

making your own beacon based tracking system is pretty simple, and then you have the screen sizes, time on page metrics etc.

The real power of Google Analytics is not in the tracking code, it's with the front-end interface that any non-technical product manager or marketer can use. Tracking users is easy. Allowing non-technical folks with easy-to-use analysis tools is much harder.

Re: Show HN: I replaced Google Analytics with simple log-based analytics

#39
post #25
post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wish they had a simple Docker image available with everything setup and configurable from a single file. The installation process is complex and under documented, IMHO. But the software is pretty nice!

Why do you need Docker for a simple PHP & MySQL script? To install it you just need to setup a MySQL database and enter the credentials in the setup script. Finally, add the tracking code to your site, but that's the same for every analytics engine.

Maybe if someone hasn't an existing php host and doesn't want to configure one from scratch.

Re: Show HN: I replaced Google Analytics with simple log-based analytics

#40
post #7
post #4

> Obviously with log parsing you don’t get as much information as a JavaScript-heavy, Google Analytics-style system. There’s no screen sizes, no time-on-page metrics, etc. But that’s okay for me! This also bypasses Ad blocker. In the case you have a large percentage of technical audience (who presumably would have Ad blocker installed) this log can be way more accurate than GA. However this still requires setting up…

> I would really love it if GitHub pages or Netlify can provide some simple server-side tracking. It doesn't match GA but in some cases that's all I need. That would be a great feature for GitHub Pages! Just a simple interface like https://simpleanalytics.io/simpleanalytics.io would serve most GH Pages use cases, I would think.

I feel like that should already exist, but surprisingly it doesn't. Hopefully Github works on it soon!
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