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'Traditional' Log Parsing Obsolete? What are best practices?

Comb
Mint-less
Posted on Feb 05, '08 at 05:14 pm

I’ve been using Google Analytics for a while and it’s certainly lacking so I was considering Mint and it looks great and is created by someone who I’ve respected for a long time.

The question is, now that I’m focused on a site with high amounts of traffic and looking to scrutinize behavior, traffic, etc. Is ‘traditional’ log parsing completely obsoleted by these new js solutions? I recognize you lose some tracking of those who don’t run js, but with my audience, that’s not a concern.

Mostly, I want to be sure the data I have available is comprehensive.

Do any of you use anything in conjunction with Mint for a fuller picture?

In looking at a few solutions, I find a lack of cross sectional data analysis of logs - esp when the relational db is the data store. - “Of new, unique users today, what are the page counts by content?” - “Of visitors from this referrer, how many are returning vs. new?”

And the lack of performance metrics bugs me. Should I be looking for something for cacti for that? - “What pages took longest to load and deliver?”

What do you guys consider as the best practices for thoroughly monitoring your website’s performance, usage?

Thanks!

xul
Minted
Posted on Feb 05, '08 at 06:50 pm

I still use Statcounter which generates virtually no overhead for me. It appears that 1% of my visitors have JS turned off. And well, these might include bots etc (so nothing to worry about)…

But the general number should be higher: http://www.w3schools.com/browsers/browsers_stats.asp

I got rid of Google Analytics as soon as I came to the awareness that it generates an warning in IE if the security is set fairly high.

Why is Mint not tracking at least the minimal data that can be required without JS? Another idea would be a Pepper that tracks how much have JS turned off.

Comb
Mint-less
Posted on Feb 06, '08 at 12:35 am

I haven’t looked at an old log parser’s output in a while, but let’s see if we can even think of any features provided by these ‘traditional’ solutions that Mint hasn’t covered.

A little digging through the Peppermill rewarded me with a Pepper that shows slow/fast loading pages. There’s lots of features I love that console the ‘omg I’m obsessing about my traffic! what was viewed in the last 2 minutes?!” moments.

I’m still quite surprised by the lack of cross sectional data analysis (as I call it).

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