awstats: "add to favorites" statistic

how do they estimate this?

[RoySpencer]

In awstats, near the bottom they have an "add to favories" statistic, which is "estimated" (ours is averaging 4.5%). Any idea how this is estimated? (we don't have an "add to favorites" button on any of our pages).

[Mardi_Gras]

Probably by estimating number of visitors vs. requests for favicon.ico from your server.

[andrew_m]

My impression too.
But that's not reliable -- mozilla, firebird and probably some other request favicon even when the page's not getting bookmarked.

[RoySpencer]

ahhhh! I always wondered what the request for favicon was...what is it, exactly?

[andrew_m]

favicon is a small icon in the browser location bar (for mozilla) or the one in bookmarks for IE.

Like that dude with a star for these forums :)

[Zaphod Beeblebrox]

Checking for favicon doesn't work, since it's also used in the address bar.

IE browsers add the word DigExt to the user-agent when someone has 'Make available off-line' checked, though. I use that.

[Mardi_Gras]

>since it's also used in the address bar.
Regardless of where it is used, I am confident that AWStats pulls the count from requests for favicon.ico :)

>IE browsers add the word DigExt to the user-agent when someone has 'Make available off-line' checked, though. I use that.

I am not sure how representative that would be. I would guess that 9 out of 10 Internet users have no idea what 'Make available off-line' means, much less ever invoke it. Perhaps you have an extremely web-savvy audience.

[balam]

> Probably by estimating number of visitors vs. requests for favicon.ico from your server.

> But that's not reliable -- mozilla, firebird and probably some other request favicon even when the page's not getting bookmarked.

It's more reliable than you think...

I (too) was curious about this feature when it first appeared, since I wanted to know how accurate is was. So, after looking at the perl code, I saw that when a request for favicon.ico was made, the UA was also checked to see if it was a version of Internet Explorer. If it was a version of IE, then that request counted towards the "Add to Favourites" statistic...

Still not perfect - but then again, nothing is 100% accurate when it comes to logfile analysis.

[Zaphod Beeblebrox]

Perhaps you have an extremely web-savvy audience.

On the contrary, it's checked by default. ;)

If it was a version of IE, then that request counted towards the "Add to Favourites" statistic...

Well, that simply isn't correct. When I go to CNN.com, for example, I see the CNN icon in my address bar. This means it's been downloaded. I have, however, not added CNN to my favourites...

[balam]

> Well, that simply isn't correct.

Whether it's correct or not, it is how the software is written. One man's "feature" is another man's "bug" - just ask Gates and anyone who uses Microsoft products. :)

> When I go to CNN.com, for example, I see the CNN icon in my address bar. This means it's been downloaded. I have, however, not added CNN to my favourites...

Hmm, I've never (I think) seen this sort of behaviour before, but as we all know, YMMV. Which version of IE are you using?

(For what it's worth, I just happened to have CNN open in another window when I came here out of boredom. I too haven't bookmarked any CNN pages, yet I don't have the CNN "favicon" displayed. This is with IE v6. I also have other versions of IE installed [webmasterworld.com], IE 5.01SP2 & IE 5.5SP2, and neither of them showed the icon. It would seem YM-Does-V.)