Analytics IP Filter: How to test it?

You have setup Google Analytics…

Now you want to filter out internal traffic to your live site, because you get skewed results because of that…

You write an IP exclusion filter…

Now, the next obvious step is, you need to verify that your internal traffic is indeed getting excluded.

But strangely, there is no straightforward way!

1. Simple way is to try something very awkward that no one else would do…   …and see if it’s reported the next day…but this is ad hoc…

OR,

a. Create a new profile for the same domain

b. Don’t do anything… …I mean, don’t add filter to it.

This way, you can compare both the profiles, and see if there are differences…

Not very clean…I agree…

Testing Google Analytics code in Dev environment before Live

Here is a typical scenario…

Every site will have a Dev and Stage environment to test the code before taking the build live.

These environments would typically not be accessible from outside world…

How can we test google analytics code in such a case? Any pointers?

I know I am supposed to put answers here, not questions…

May be I’ll post a follow-up to this question…once I get something…

I tried to Google this, but so far haven’t found anything significant exceptthis, and even that doesn’t have exactly what I am talking about…

Ideally, I would want to track the Dev environment in a totally separated section…Would I need to create  2 accounts?  Even if  I do create  2 accounts, How do I make my Dev server accessible to Google Analytics?

Counting impressions for CPM ads on AJAX

AJAX is the order of the day for a clean, fast user experience. But this creates a problem with the sites that heavily rely on advertising as their revenue stream. If the page doesn’t refresh, how would they get more impressions? For example, if you see the cricket score page of cricketnext, you’ll notice they could’ve easily implemented AJAX and refreshed only the scorecard div. But they haven’t. The whole page refreshes agonizingly slowly (all the young India from IT companies must be pointing their browsers to this page on critical moments), making the users anxious and frustrated.

I was wondering why don’t they refresh the ads while refreshing the content? they could just count it as a new impression…sounds intuitive isn’t it? It’s nothing of a rocket science on technical front. The problem is, IAB guidelines were not very specific in this matter. They have now released specific counting guidelines for Rich Internet Applications.

This article by Eric Picard sums it up nicely. The article is written on June 2006 though. With the new guidelines, I hope, more and more publishers will embrace AJAX (or flash… or silverlight…but just refresh relevant content god damn it !!!) without apprehension of not having enough impressions because of AJAX.

But the publishers will need tools…just guidelines are not enough. You know who can really create a thrust in this regard…yes…the omnipresent Google. If only Google integrates auto-ad-refresh in GWT, which talks seamlessly to AdSense to fetch ads on AJAX actions…

I was also wondering whether there is some scheme for publishers, which allows them to use CPM and CPC at the same time…think about it…the advertiser wants branding as well as concrete customer convesion…so they’ll pay some low CPM for impressions…but whenever a user clicks…the publisher gets some top-up bonus…but not sure whether such schemes exist…do you know? 

Web 3.0 by Sramana Mitra

Recently found a very interesting blog by Sramana Mitra…an internet veteran with a very impressive profile.

She has given her overall perspective on where web is going…and calls it Web 3.0…a very attractive title indeed for all aspirants who think that they’ve missed the Web 2.0 bus…

Her formula is as follows -

3C = Content, Commerce, Community | 4th C = Context | P = Personalization | VS = Vertical Search

Web 3.0 = (4C + P + VS).

Traditionally, Content and Commerce have always been separate…Community and UGC are latest fads…and they earn revenue by advertising content to relevant users (context and personalization)…where a lot of advertisers are eCommerce players…

Amazon is the only company I see around, which has a good focus on each of the above…they have great recommendation system…that always encourages discovery of new content (good for eCommerce)…they have great personalization and context…they have flawless eCommerce…but all the content they have is UGC…they don’t themselves create expert content (book reviews etc.)…and there is not as much focus on community, though there are community features like ListMania…

Doesn’t it sound too ambitious? Imagine a CNet + Wize + eBay…

But theoretically…there is nothing wrong with having an eCommerce site that gives you great SN features and great content…may be it’s just that we are habitual of having separate providers for content and commerce…and some great player will change our perceptions…

Sramana has also written some posts about important verticals…like travel and jobs from Web 3.0 perspective…very interesting ones indeed…