

Mixpanel buys a billboard, declares page views are dead. - mjpizz
http://thenextweb.com/industry/2011/02/03/mixpanel-page-views-are-dead-measure-engagement/

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yahelc
All the examples of things Google Analytics _can't_ do are incorrect. Google
Analytics Custom Events are fairly robust, providing a 4 level data hierarchy.
'Pageviews' are a concept that can be applied in non-pageview scenarios, and
they regularly are in apps. And being able to flag people as logged in vs. not
logged in is a classic example of what you can use Custom Variables for.
Mixpanel has some interesting offerings, particularly in the real-time space,
but Google Analytics offers 99% of what most sites need, and without a price
tag.

There are things Google Analytics does poorly, though, like Goals (which don't
work for Events, aren't retroactive, and are limited to 20 per profile) and
Funnels (which are even more rigid than Goals).

I wish MixPanel well, since a competitive analytics space is good for us all,
but the developer they quoted could use some advice on how to maximize his/her
Google Analytics experience. Can't beat the price tag!

~~~
Charuru
I think the biggest problem with GA is actually its usability. Mixpanel
doesn't do what GA can't do, but does better what GA does poorly.

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markessien
Mixpanel is also crazily expensive. I am using mixpanel to track email sends
and app opens for iphone apps, and at 1.2 million events a month, this would
cost $350 a month. That's just insane for a graph that shows daily opens.

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citricsquid
Didn't they see how it didn't work too well for DDG? It ended with (last I
saw) many people criticising their "attack" and even Matt Cutts getting
involved, it seems strange they'd do this after that... assuming "the ‘war’
they have declared on Google" is accurate. Also I suspect a billboard
advertisement for something with such a small user base (vs. the average
person who will see this) won't convert much so they're banking on "social
media" coverage?

Mixpanel is neat though.

~~~
arst
While HN's reaction to DDG's 'war on Google' has been mixed, their search
traffic doubled in January (according to Gabriel's newsletter, not sure if
there's a linkable source on this), so I'm not prepared to consider the
strategy a failure.

~~~
reitzensteinm
They publish traffic numbers here: <http://duckduckgo.com/traffic.html>

Unfortunately it just ticked over on the month, so there's not much history
there. For reference in the current numbers, I've been watching it for about 6
months if memory serves, and before the banner went up, it only broke 100k
once. It's been getting 200k+ since the banner went up. So somewhere between
double and triple the queries.

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endlessvoid94
One huge caveat: Google Analytics is completely FREE.

~~~
citricsquid
It's weird, they claim that once you it a certain level they require you to
either use Adwords or pay (I think you have the option of paying) but they
don't seem to enforce it, do you happen to know if it's true?

~~~
yahelc
The claim is 5 million pageviews per month if you're not an AdWords customer,
but its not actively enforced, though all indications are that they'll get
more serious about this over time.

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hinathan
Noticed on 101 last night. Presuming the idea is to give the folks on the
GoogleBus something to see?

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hapless
So let me get this straight: Mixpanel is advising me that page views are dead,
engagement is all that matters ... and their chosen medium for this message
_permits no measurement of engagement whatsoever._

Their web2.0 metrics are superior to traditional measures, but a one-way
communications medium that has been popular for over five hundred years is
apparently superior to any type of online advertising, so much so that you
don't even care about the metrics.

This is the worst message/medium mismatch I could imagine.

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catshirt
" _Same with Facebook, it’s ajax heavy, what people are liking, commenting,
etc is more valuable to facebook than someone just viewing the site._ "

how _does_ facebook compensate here? i believe engagement is more important,
but are the lost pageviews _really_ of no matter? how does it play into alexa
etc?

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billclerico
baller move guys. love the audacity. go mixpanel.

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Skywing
Congratulations. The billboard looks great.

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callmeed
But I just setup a mixpanel account tonight for tracking ... pageviews.

