Hi, Given the recent spurt of discussion on user tracking, I re-read the "how the web works" bit. While it is true and I agree 100% with it, I find it a bit one-sided.
It's working from the assumption that you absolutely do not want to implement mandatory login or cookies. This, IMHO, is not true anymore. Login is one thing, but even mandatory cookies are nothing out of the ordinary. The web has become more exclusive -- many sites are designed on the "works with IE, job done" principle, with absolutely no consideration for people with other browsers, people who don't want cookies or Javasript etc. Perhaps sad, but true nonetheless. E.g. many Java web application base their functionality on storing variables in the server side session context object. The session id is stored in a cookie (or, optionally a parameter in the URL). Without a valid session id the application just will not work, and booting such a request to the front page is absolutely correct behavior. Thus, you WILL have a unique session id and even a convenient starting point for click-tracking. And this is actually pretty trivial to implement in any J2EE web container. Yes, there are still "black holes" in the information, but this model is substantially better (in the user tracking sense) than the classic "random access" model. I find Analog a bit schizoid in this sense -- first it provides the USER reports, barely mentioned in the documentation, then it dedicates a full page to explaining why the USER report is useless... (it isn't, but that's the impression one could easily get) Sigh... I really like Analog. I've been using it for log analysis on a very big site, with success. But in the future, the management has chosen to go with HitList, for two primary reasons: 1) It's a commercial product. I guess this is based on the "we paid them, we can blame them" principle, even though 99% of software is sold without warranty 2) It gives the numbers (visitors etc.) the management wants to see -- whether they mean anything or not... It does produce rather pretty reports, I gotta give it that. +------------------------------------------------------------------------ | TO UNSUBSCRIBE from this list: | http://lists.isite.net/listgate/analog-help/unsubscribe.html | | Digest version: http://lists.isite.net/listgate/analog-help-digest/ | Usenet version: news://news.gmane.org/gmane.comp.web.analog.general | List archives: http://www.analog.cx/docs/mailing.html#listarchives +------------------------------------------------------------------------
