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Google Analytics: Stop feeding the beast

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Re: Google Analytics: Stop feeding the beast

#131

Post by godelski »

PragmaticPulp wrote: post #117
crazygringo wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Don't use analytics at all but focus on your product. Huh? Analytics is how you focus on your product. By instrumenting your product with analytics, you can find out if customers are using your new useful feature or if they can't find it. If they're performing a task quickly because it's easy, or slowly because they're struggling with the UX. And you find out that customers on a certain mobile device are suffering…

I worked for a tech company popular with enthusiasts when GDPR was first rolled out. We had a lot of requests from users who wanted us to provide their data per the GDPR allowance. We also had an influx of tech journalists filing GDPR requests in hopes of catching us doing something wrong or tracking too much personal data. When we sent users their "data", many of them were in disbelief at how little data they receiv…

I think Facebook gets the blame because they are at the end of the chain. They don't sell your data but they do sell the access to your data (from themselves through the website or tracking and what they bought from said other companies). Being that major player in the service it makes sense that they get the heat, but at the same time most people are still tech illiterate. I mean look at how people think Amazon is only a retail company.

Re: Google Analytics: Stop feeding the beast

#132

Post by itwy »

zserge wrote: post #56
z92 wrote: post #23

Parse your server's access log file. The way it had been done for decades. "Analog" was popular then, Should be better options now.

I have been using this for a while, GoAccess is a wonderful little tool to automate the parsing. Highly recommend to those who prefer the old-school approach towards web analytics. https://goaccess.io/

Thank you for sharing this.

Re: Google Analytics: Stop feeding the beast

#133

Post by dillondoyle »

tristor wrote: post #13

After a recent story on HN about all the horrible tracking Disqus started to do after being acquired by an ad-tech company, I ditched it and Google Analytics on my semi-dormant personal website. The process of fixing it got me interested in working on my site again and I ended up upstreaming the patches into the Hugo theme I use[1], so now everyone with that theme can benefit easily. I ended up using GoatCounter[2] a…

Another example people might not know is/was ShareThis. They became a pretty big 3p data 'ad tech' provider

Re: Google Analytics: Stop feeding the beast

#134

Post by marvinblum »

arcturus17 wrote: post #115

Is there a paid service that's any good and easy to use? I don't buy the "don't use any analytics, period" sentiment that's being repeated in this thread, but I am currently building a project that would definitely benefit from telemetry, and I would consider a paying alternative.

I'm building https://pirsch.io/. Take a look and let me know what you think :)

Re: Google Analytics: Stop feeding the beast

#135

Post by bshoemaker »

heipei wrote: post #3

Here's a crazy idea: Don't use analytics at all but focus on your product. If your success relies solely on "improving conversions" by tracking your users and then changing the position and color of your "Checkout" button then maybe try setting yourself apart such that customers want to buy your product even despite an obnoxious purchasing flow. Only then start optimizing it. More serious thoughts: Google Analytics i…

How in the world has this been upvoted lol

Re: Google Analytics: Stop feeding the beast

#137

Post by Guidii »

lmkg wrote: post #37

I have high confidence that Google does not dip into Analytics data for its own uses without permission. I am an analytics consultant by profession, so this opinion is colored by the old adage about not understanding something that prevents your paycheck. But it is also colored by a decade of experience with the technical and organizational capabilities and limitations of the tool. Let me lay out my reasoning. 1. Leg…

Thanks for posting a thoughtful reply. It's great to see reasoned discussion on this site. Like most tech issues, there's a lot of nuance in this, and it's helpful to be able to hear the benefits on all sides of an issue.

Disclaimer: I'm a googler, but not in the analytics space. I don't have the background to meaningfully contribute to this, and will bow to lkmg's expertise. I also really like my job;)

Re: Google Analytics: Stop feeding the beast

#138

Post by nobodywasishere »

boffinism wrote: post #24

I really didn't want to use Google Analytics for a personal site (details in bio), but because it's a non-monetised personal site I really didn't want to spend money to know how many visitors I had, but because I'm trying to learn about content I really did want to know how many visitors I had, because that's a good way of discovering what content resonates etc. I tried PanelBear, but because I briefly hit the front…

Check out GoatCounter (http://goatcounter.com/). It's what I use for my personal blog, and it also has a free tier for non-commercial users (though I'd still recommend donating so they can stick around). They even have a no JS way to integrate tracking, as all I really care about is how many ppl are reading my blog.

Re: Google Analytics: Stop feeding the beast

#139

Post by missedthecue »

Enginerrrd wrote: post #5
heipei wrote: post #3

Here's a crazy idea: Don't use analytics at all but focus on your product. If your success relies solely on "improving conversions" by tracking your users and then changing the position and color of your "Checkout" button then maybe try setting yourself apart such that customers want to buy your product even despite an obnoxious purchasing flow. Only then start optimizing it. More serious thoughts: Google Analytics i…

>Here's a crazy idea: Don't use analytics at all but focus on your product. If your success relies solely on "improving conversions" by tracking your users and then changing the position and color of your "Checkout" button then maybe try setting yourself apart such that customers want to buy your product even despite an obnoxious purchasing flow. Only then start optimizing it. This is part of why costco is so success…

You don't think Costco optimizes their checkout process using huge piles of analytics? You can focus on more than one thing at a time.

Re: Google Analytics: Stop feeding the beast

#140

Post by stiray »

crazygringo wrote: post #69
heipei wrote: post #3

Here's a crazy idea: Don't use analytics at all but focus on your product. If your success relies solely on "improving conversions" by tracking your users and then changing the position and color of your "Checkout" button then maybe try setting yourself apart such that customers want to buy your product even despite an obnoxious purchasing flow. Only then start optimizing it. More serious thoughts: Google Analytics i…

> Don't use analytics at all but focus on your product. Huh? Analytics is how you focus on your product. By instrumenting your product with analytics, you can find out if customers are using your new useful feature or if they can't find it. If they're performing a task quickly because it's easy, or slowly because they're struggling with the UX. And you find out that customers on a certain mobile device are suffering…

> Analytics isn't just about conversion. Analytics is about the entire product experience.

... which you can entirely do by analyzing web server logs.

You dont need google for this, pushing your users (with violation of GDPR consent) into google monstrosity. Dont do that, I block every freaking google domain from cdns, fonts to analytics.

But I don't block 1st party analytics.

I have no reason to. I have visited your site, I dont have anything against YOU following what I read. It is your site. But you will ask me for consent for giving those data to google. And I will say 'no'. And I am not the only one.

Just to inform you, that the person/entity that allows Google to gain access to PII data is directly responsible for this - if google is fined due to GDPR violation, you can get fined to by providing it the way to get users data. They will survive. You might not.

Have your analytics, but you will not sell my soul (which GDPR explicitly forbids you - you are handing over my PII data to 3rd party that is known for violating it and that makes you accomplice) for you having your graphs.

You can get those data from web server logs. You will have all the data that you need. Actually more data, as no one will block them.

Needing "google analytics" is just a huge, giant, hype driven, lie. You don't need them to analyze what you already have in YOUR logs.

chaos_emergent: please do explain, what data google analytics is offering to you than what is already in your server logs? Without violating GDPR even more? Yes, you can surely track something more, again "on your side". Dont give it to google as it WILL get blocked and you will have a distorted picture of how your site is being used. If you want real data, skip 3rd party analytics. Found a way to require to be unblocked? I will skip your site, you have just lost a user. A paying user if the content is worth the money. And sites with selling my data for a graph or two are not worth it.

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