PAS Error of the day

[Brett_Tabke]

Media Matrix.com [mediamatrix.com] for winning the Page Author Stupid Error (PAS) of the day.

This is the company that is suppose to be in charge of net stats? You can't get to their site unless you identify your browser as IE or newest Aol/Netscape. There is nothing on their site that needs either of those browsers - even Lynx will suffice. How stupid is that?

And people wonder why their stats show 99% of the net uses IE or Netscape.

Media Metrix is run by rank amateurs.

Thanks to Richard Grevers <[e-mail]> for the reminder.

[JamesR]

Hey Brett, any online stat services you think are reliable? I always thought Media Metrix was the best thing out there [naive]Me[/naive]

[GWJ]

Hey James,

I don't want to drop a URL here but do a search on Fast Stats by Mach 5. Doesn't beat looking at raw logs but it gives me what I want.

Brian

[JamesR]

Thanks GWJ, I use FastStats (have a problem with the phrases they report, incomplete most of the time). I am looking for stats of how much traffic sites on the Net pull, particularly smaller portals and directories especially.

[Brett_Tabke]

I've yet to find any reliable counter service that tracks net usage. I think media metrix numbers are skewed to the point of being suspect. Not merely a matter of bad methodology, but some of the 'pockets' behind them makes what they publish questionable. I have a real problem with a site that claims to track browsers accuratly, yet they can't even get it right on their own site!?

Fast Stats is a good little program. I've used it on a client's site for over a year because that is what they wanted.

When looking at browser stats, always keep in mind that there is a growing number of agents spoofing as IE because there is a growing number of site admins who think that is what everyone is using. Compare a jscript based counter to real logs sometime - it's another one of those things that make you go hmmm.