A Brief History Of Blogging
Once upon a time, blogging was considered the pastime of people with too much free time or too pronounced a desire for cheap popularity. It was the sole domain of people who thought the world wanted to see pictures of their pets or silly selfies of them wearing funny items of clothing, etc. It never occurred to them that most people don't care in the slightest about information that doesn't make their lives better in some way. Finding out what a film star happens to be wearing is important because that is going to become the trend. But who cares for the wardrobe choices of the average blue or white collar worker?
After a few years of such uninteresting trash, blogging evolved & became a discussion platform for subjects like parenting, home-making, cooking, tailoring, etc. These topics are useful, but they are mostly the interest of housewives (because the professionals in these fields would rather not just give away the information they depend on for their living).
It is only in recent months that blogging has become a platform for technical & analytical subjects such as economics, business, law & diplomacy. The reason for that is the on-again-off-again methods of censorship that have sapped the majority of world newspapers of any originality & fresh perspective they offered to their readers. Such restraints have shifted market share to private analysts who are gradually fulfilling more & more of the responsibility of keeping the news interesting & informative.
The Fly In The Ointment
Marketing is very important. In print media, the tried-&-trusted method is advertisements in the papers, on the radio & on TV. For blogs, the only reliable methods to spread the word are emails to prospective readers or the right tags to "attract the attention" of the browser algorithms.
But, there is a creeping realization among bloggers in general that the number of pageviews generated by the proprietary algorithms of brands like Google & WordPress are far less than what they should be.
For example, I run two blogs: "The Green Town Investor" (the one you are reading right now) & "Satisficing Profits" (the link to which is displayed in the upper right corner of this website). While my immediate family consists of four people (my parents, my brother & me), I have a large extended family of uncles, aunts & cousins. Most of them keep in touch with my blogs from various parts of the world. In addition, I have readers from practically every corner of the world. But you would never guess that from the glacial pace at which my pageview counters move!
Web Log Analysis Software
According to Wikipedia, the definition of web log analysis software is as follows:
"Web log analysis software (also called a web log analyzer) is a kind of web analytics software that passes a server log file from a web server, & based on the values contained in the log file, derives indicators about when, how & by whom a web server is visited. Usually reports are generated from the log files immediately, but the log files can alternatively be passed for a database & reports generated on demand."
Now serious bloggers like me put a lot of thought & effort into our articles before we post them online. The obvious implication is that, if they are well-received, we have the right to get that information without having the inefficient algorithms of Google & WordPress watering down the numbers & making a respectable blog look like some forgotten porn site in a dusty corner of the Internet!
A List of Alternative Web Log Analyzers
There are a number of web log analyzers available for download on the Internet, both free & for a fee. The free ones are as follows:
1. Analog
Analog was first released on June 21, 1995. It is supported by Windows, Mac OS, Linux & the majority of Unix-like operating systems & is available in 35 languages. It commands a market share of about 25%.
2. AWStats
AWStats was first released on May 2, 2000. It is supported by almost every operating system, but works best for Linux systems.
3. CrawlTrack
CrawlTrack was released on November 26, 2011. It is supported by almost every operating system & is available in English, French, German, Spanish, Dutch & Turkish.
4. GoAccess
GoAccess was released on March 18, 2015. It offers a real time, interactive snapshot of the traffic on your site with information on everything from top visitors to geo location.
5. Open Web Analytics
OWA was released on May 4, 2014. It is supported by almost every operating system in the market. It is highly compatible with the WordPress & MediaWiki services & easily integrates with them.
6. Piwik
Piwik has been releasing updated versions of its software since late 2007, the latest being on April 30, 2015. It is currently used by over a million websites & is available in over 45 languages.
7. W3Perl
W3Perl, released on June 6, 2014, is written in the Perl computer language, which means that it will run on any Perl-supported operating system including Windows, Mac OS X & Unix.
8. Webalizer
Webalizer was released on August 26, 2013. It is supported by almost every operating system & is available in over 30 languages.
These are just the top free web log analyzers. For those who are willing to pay for better services, Wikipedia has compiled a separate list of another 25 services. You can view the list at the following address:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_web_analytics_software
Implications For The Established Brands
Google's 2014 annual revenue was an impressive US$66 billion, the majority of which is said to be derived from its AdWords service (an online advertising service that places advertisements near the search results, as well as on popular blogs - I know because I got the offer to split the profits of AdWords from Google about a month ago).
WordPress does not publish its financial information, but considering that it claims established brands like CNN as clients, it obviously must be making a pretty penny, too.
I suggest that they correct their pageview analyzer algorithms before these other services decide that their client base has grown big enough that they can afford to enter the blogging platform market.
We all know The Golden Rule: Whoever has the gold makes the rules.
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