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Google Fonts Analytics

fonts.google.com

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Re: Google Fonts Analytics

#41

Post by dt3ft »

raphlinus wrote: post #30

I was part of the team that founded this, about 10 years ago if memory serves. I'm still loosely involved, though no longer at Google. Inconsolata was one of the 20 fonts for the original launch, and we're now in the process of launching it as a variable font, with both width and weight axes. I'm also getting funding from them for Rust-based font tools. Feel free to AMA, though no guarantees I'll have good answers.

Was this created in order to track users across different sites or because google wanted to make the world a better place? :)

Re: Google Fonts Analytics

#44

Post by raphlinus »

dt3ft wrote: post #41
raphlinus wrote: post #30

I was part of the team that founded this, about 10 years ago if memory serves. I'm still loosely involved, though no longer at Google. Inconsolata was one of the 20 fonts for the original launch, and we're now in the process of launching it as a variable font, with both width and weight axes. I'm also getting funding from them for Rust-based font tools. Feel free to AMA, though no guarantees I'll have good answers.

Was this created in order to track users across different sites or because google wanted to make the world a better place? :)

The latter.

Re: Google Fonts Analytics

#46

Post by hinkley »

r0bbbo wrote: post #26
hinkley wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Then why are there 36 trillion requests?

A lot of people using a lot of fonts from a lot of different browsers. I'm sure the caching techniques aren't perfect but they're probably quite good.

It's been a while now, but at one point there were some numbers that came in that showed that a much higher fraction of user agents arrive at a web site with a completely empty cache [than you might expect].

Enough so that if you rely on caching for user experience, your average user is not going to have a good time.

Re: Google Fonts Analytics

#50

Post by speedgoose »

smaili wrote: post #22

Does anyone know whether this service generates any revenue for Google? I can’t see selling fonts data as something desirable by 3rd party companies but maybe that’s just me?

In addition to some data from websites which do not use Google analytics, they may like to have the power of pushing the "comic sans ms" font or having a * { display: none !important;} for non chrome browsers.
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