What is the best self hosted alternative that I can import google analytics data to?
Google Analytics: Stop feeding the beast
221–230 of 401 posts
Re: Google Analytics: Stop feeding the beast
#222Earlier quoted context omitted.
I have never been inside a newsroom, so I can't know for sure, but I suspect facebook also gets a fair amount of the blame from news media because of their fraught relationship as pseudo-competitors.
I have been inside a newsroom (for 20 years), and your assumptions are not correct. Very very very few journalists have time to grind axes for any reason. They're too busy feeding the beast.
Huh, thank you. Obviously the people on the ground don't, but there's no truth to the idea of what stories are greenlit by editors?
Could be as simple as occasionally removing mentions of companies that advertise with the paper in peices about customer data creating the effect, not J. J. Jamison telling people to get him pictures of zuckerberg :D
Re: Google Analytics: Stop feeding the beast
#223Earlier 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…
> You can't focus on the product without analytics This is provably false. You do not need intrusive analytics to develop fantastic products. Have people somehow forgotten about good old-fashioned user testing? It is expensive, time consuming, and amazingly effective. Most importantly you can actually talk to your users because they are people instead of data points. User feedback >>> analytics.
And both > one of them.
Re: Google Analytics: Stop feeding the beast
#224Earlier 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…
> Huh? Analytics is how you focus on your product. For the first decade of my career, I really believed this, and spent a lot of time doing split tests, and studying analytics, and trying to "make things better" by understanding the numbers as they were given to me. This was a mistake. I've since learned that these numbers will rarely help me make meaningful improvements to my product, and my business. Sure, they can…
You're essentially arguing for qualitative data instead of quantitative, but both together is usually where the money is. I agree that qualitative analytics are underestimatd because they're hard to do, but I also think that having quantitative analytics together with qualitative allows you to contextualize your numbers in ways that lead to insights you wouldn't have otherwise.
Also, after you've already reached product-market fit, it's important to take your product to its "local maximum".
Re: Google Analytics: Stop feeding the beast
#225Earlier quoted context omitted.
>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…
I echo your sentiments on Costco but this is an argument for different metrics, not an argument against analytics. There is no chance that Costco doesn't use analytics. They might not A/B test their online button colors for highest conversion rate, but I'd bet they have their own set of analytics to determine product quality, sales, returns, viability, etc.
This, thank you. I feel like people are making big assumptions about what "analytics" are that don't even begin to cover the whole spectrum of analytics.
Re: Google Analytics: Stop feeding the beast
#226Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Huh? Analytics is how you focus on your product. For the first decade of my career, I really believed this, and spent a lot of time doing split tests, and studying analytics, and trying to "make things better" by understanding the numbers as they were given to me. This was a mistake. I've since learned that these numbers will rarely help me make meaningful improvements to my product, and my business. Sure, they can…
Apple famously "ignores" its users, partly because users usually can't see far beyond what is in front of them, often because they don't know about impending advances in technology or clever new designs. They'll ask for faster, cheaper versions of what they already have (faster horses, cheaper buggy whips as they say) rather than the next big thing. Faster/cheaper weren't the primary draws of the Mac, iPod, iPhone, i…
It's really not that useful for Apple to collect analytics because they make physical products, where the potential of analytics is limited. When it comes to a SaaS or a web page, the possibilities of analytics are much greater.
And yet, Macs will still send usage and performance data to Apple so they can incorporate that information into future product versions and find out about system software issues.
Re: Google Analytics: Stop feeding the beast
#227Earlier quoted context omitted.
Apple famously "ignores" its users, partly because users usually can't see far beyond what is in front of them, often because they don't know about impending advances in technology or clever new designs. They'll ask for faster, cheaper versions of what they already have (faster horses, cheaper buggy whips as they say) rather than the next big thing. Faster/cheaper weren't the primary draws of the Mac, iPod, iPhone, i…
It's really not that useful for Apple to collect analytics because they make physical products, where the potential of analytics is limited. When it comes to a SaaS or a web page, the possibilities of analytics are much greater. And yet, Macs will still send usage and performance data to Apple so they can incorporate that information into future product versions and find out about system software issues.
And you can turn it off. ;-)
I guess the point is not that crash reports and slowdown data aren't useful (they are), but that they tend to give you incremental improvements.
That being said, incremental improvements over a decade can make a big difference, as Apple also demonstrates.
Re: Google Analytics: Stop feeding the beast
#228Here'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…
Only on HN would you find people seriously arguing that focusing on product development is a good reason to remove analytics from a site. I've worked almost exclusively at companies where the product is the website, and initially this idea struck me as laughably naive. But let me be fair and think through this.
Tech startups do definitely have this problem of focusing on website analytics where the product is NOT a website or app. If we're generous we can assume many people here develop for these kinds of companies. Some waste a lot of time looking for up-and-to-the-right arrows for investors or trying to be data-focused when data about the website isn't actually all that important. Many of these companies might actually be better off with no analytics to waste time on. I'd still argue it's better to check in every once in a while to look for problems and ask yourself some questions.
The idea of removing analytics where the product is an app or a website is silly. This would be like arguing a grocery store shouldn't track what people are buying from their stores, and instead just source good products. You need to do both. What are you going to do when I ask what is or is not working? Tell me your feelings? Shake an 8-ball? Aside from detecting problems, analytics can be a jumping off point for innovation if you're smart about it. What can we do that's more like what's working? How can we improve this page type?
There are for sure people who over-focus on analytics (often on the wrong data points) instead of creativity, but these are not mutually exclusive. If I were to list the millions of dollars I've earned and saved via analytics this would be a very long post. Sadly, most of those millions were for other people, but it's a very valuable tool for optimizing and creating if you use it correctly.
Re: Google Analytics: Stop feeding the beast
#229Earlier 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 wonder how GDPR and CCPA apply to data brokers and credit bureaus?
Re: Google Analytics: Stop feeding the beast
#230Earlier quoted context omitted.
And continue chasing you around for months after you've made the actual purchase and are no longer interested in the product.
Which makes at least a little sense when I'm on another site. But just this morning, Amazon started "recommending" a product to me that I'd actually bought from Amazon two months ago. How many printers does Amazon think I need?
> How many printers does Amazon think I need?
I usually buy a new printer when it runs out of ink because it's cheaper than buying a new ink cartridge.