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How many users block Google analytics? (2017)

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Re: How many users block Google analytics? (2017)

#21

Post by Olreich »

thanhhaimai wrote: post #9
saagarjha wrote: post #3

One of the corollaries to this is that if you are basing your decisions on analytics, you are probably under-representing people who block them, who often tend to be a non-representative subset of your users. I have seen multiple projects do things like stop supporting features that their analytics “showed nobody was using” but failed to realize that a significant portion of their (often technical and very vocal) use…

When I turned off my Windows 10 Telemetry, I expressed a clear choice that I'd rather not give my data, and it's fine for my voice to not be heard. I just really don't care about Windows 10 that much. On the other hand, I turned on all the telemetry for OctoPi, Steam, and a bunch of other softwares I care about. I want my voice to be heard for those cases. Just curious, what's so inexcusable about that?

Most web telemetry packages are extremely creepy, either by sharing all the data with tons of third parties, or by slurping up insane details to try to specifically fingerprint each user. Trying to tell users that they have to opt in to that sort of tracking for their voice to be heard is inexcusable.

Not all software telemetry is that creepy, but things like google analytics definitely are.

Re: How many users block Google analytics? (2017)

#22

Post by Silhouette »

cortesoft wrote: post #12
ocdtrekkie wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just ask people!

How? In surveys? No one does those. Plus, people often don't give valuable feedback when asked questions about features they want and use... people are poor judges of what they actually want, and will list things they think they care about and then end up never using or which don't affect their choices.

How? In surveys? No one does those.

Our customers certainly do. We get excellent results from asking a few simple questions now and then, providing both a good source actionable feedback on feature requests and any current problems, and often some encouraging comments that reassure us we are basically doing things that our customers like.

It doesn't just have to be surveys with lots of participants, though. For example, we've known for decades that a simple observational study with just a handful of people is often enough to identify most of the serious usability problems with an interface.

The idea that everything important must be reduced to automated analytics and number-crunching is a very strange disease. Even if the numbers don't lie -- and as we see here, that is far from guaranteed -- you still need to be asking the right questions and comparing useful alternatives for the results to be valuable.

Re: How many users block Google analytics? (2017)

#23

Post by Swizec »

saagarjha wrote: post #3

One of the corollaries to this is that if you are basing your decisions on analytics, you are probably under-representing people who block them, who often tend to be a non-representative subset of your users. I have seen multiple projects do things like stop supporting features that their analytics “showed nobody was using” but failed to realize that a significant portion of their (often technical and very vocal) use…

A/B testing is where beloved products go to die.

You can't just follow analytics. You have to understand your users.

Re: How many users block Google analytics? (2017)

#24

Post by Ayesh »

Narkov wrote: post #16

Does this take into account bots and other non-human stuff GA might block? Server logs and GA are measuring different things.

I don't think there is an effective way to distinguish bots from real users when a UA is faking what it is. IP filtering or other measures can help, but you ultimately rely on the UA strong from the UA.

Re: How many users block Google analytics? (2017)

#25

Post by peteretep »

johnnyg wrote: post #5
saagarjha wrote: post #3

One of the corollaries to this is that if you are basing your decisions on analytics, you are probably under-representing people who block them, who often tend to be a non-representative subset of your users. I have seen multiple projects do things like stop supporting features that their analytics “showed nobody was using” but failed to realize that a significant portion of their (often technical and very vocal) use…

"Oh, and by the way, responding to these kinds of issues with “if you wanted your voice to be heard, you should have turned on analytics” is inexcusable." Authentic question: how would a business know this otherwise in an actionable and effective way?

Server-side analytics will tell you in most cases, and if they don’t, they’re easy to add in a way that makes them unlikely to be blocked?

Re: How many users block Google analytics? (2017)

#26

Post by faitswulff »

RyJones wrote: post #13
saagarjha wrote: post #3

One of the corollaries to this is that if you are basing your decisions on analytics, you are probably under-representing people who block them, who often tend to be a non-representative subset of your users. I have seen multiple projects do things like stop supporting features that their analytics “showed nobody was using” but failed to realize that a significant portion of their (often technical and very vocal) use…

War story: we turned off the “print” button on MSN because it was unused. Users in Japan complained - they were printing articles to read on the train. Turned it back on in that geo

Are adblockers very prevalent in Japan?

Re: How many users block Google analytics? (2017)

#27

Post by peteretep »

saagarjha wrote: post #20
lettergram wrote: post #17

This is why I have analytics on the JavaScript side and server side. I can calculate those who block my analytics and at the same time capture a lot of the relevant information

Subverting the desires of people who would like privacy is not a good look.

If you don’t want to give your information to a site, don’t use that site? That’s a very different proposition from not wanting to give your information to a third party.

Re: How many users block Google analytics? (2017)

#29

Post by jefftk »

This test compares:

1. Number of visitors as recorded in Google Analytics

2. Number of loads of a 1x1 pixel served on a different domain

They see higher numbers for (2) than (1), and attribute the difference to users blocking Google Analytics.

I don't see them describing how they excluded bot traffic, however, and for my sites the majority of hits I get are from bots. Only some bots run JS, so I suspect their numbers for blocking users are thoroughly diluted by these bots.

(Disclosure: I work for Google, speaking only for myself)

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