

Forget Google Analytics, try realtime web statistics - rosshill
http://www.rosshill.com.au/article/realtime-web-statistics-with-chartbeat/

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arctictony
Chartbeat isn't trying to compete with an analytics package like Google
Analytics, they don't measure any of the same metrics. Chartbeat allows you to
react in real-time when events occur. If your site goes down or suddenly a
flood of traffic comes to your site after a review (good or bad) you can get
alerted and respond without having to wait a day.

Think of it like this: Google Analytics can tell you how to better position
fire hydrants and increase the efficiency of the fire engine's route to your
house. Chartbeat can tell you that your house is on fire.

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olegp
Why not use Clicky (<http://www.getclicky.com>)? It gives you both the ability
to track users in real time using the Spy feature and get the same level of
detail that Google delivers.

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greyboy
Hmm, this site has failed me from a usability standpoint.

After browsing there via Firefox, I was told I could not use the site without
Flash (which I don't have installed for Firefox). That's usually strike one.
But I really was interested in what the site had to offer.

So, after copying the URL and opening Internet Explorer to see the page, which
I often do on Flash-centric designs, I got this notification:

=== You need to install Microsoft Silverlight if you want to use chartbeat
with Internet Explorer. Or, you can use Firefox or Google Chrome browsers
(chartbeat functions smoother with either) ===

I can imagine more than one scenario where users wouldn't be able to install
Silverlight (or had painful installion failures like I did).

~~~
pbz
The "users" are the site administrators. I think it's fair to expect an
administrator to be able to install Flash or SL.

~~~
greyboy
I'm a system administrator and SilverLight has repeatedly failed to install
successfully for me. I'm tired of trying to diagnose a problem when no usable
errors are found.

However, the crux of my problem is that they are requiring Flash for Mozilla
and SilverLight for IE. My advice for them is to pick one and do it "right."

But, it's their site, not mine.

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RossM
The live app
([http://chartbeat.com/dashboard/?url=coverhunt.com&k=2ec3...](http://chartbeat.com/dashboard/?url=coverhunt.com&k=2ec35b11dde5b483de1227326644af50))
is really quite impressive. As far as maintainability goes the page load timer
looks very useful.

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hwijaya
It surely looks great for eye-candy. But, not sure if it is useful though for
anything real. I usually need some time to sit down and properly "digest" the
statistics before we decide on anything.

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TweedHeads
What would stop google to add a couple of lines to Analytics to match that
functionality?

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enomar
Scale. It's easy to give real time stats when you're only monitoring a few
hundred sites. There's a lot more data to crunch when you're trying to monitor
half the web.

~~~
schammy
getclicky.com monitors over 200,000 sites and it's real time. Sure it's
challenging to provide that level of service but without challenge life is
dull.

~~~
enomar
I only meant to imply that providing such a feature is more work than a "few
lines of code" when you're trying to monitor millions of sites in real time.

~~~
schammy
Oh, ok. I interpreted your comment to mean that no major service could pull
real time analytics beacuse it's just too hard. Sure we're a lot smaller than
Google but 200,000 is a pretty big number if I do say so myself.

