web 2.0, tools, software reviews, tweaks and latest technology
Web log analysis software and top 5
Every blogger or site owners would be aware of advantage and importance of Web Analytics. Which tool to use? It is one of the important decisions everyone should take before starting up a blog or a site.
Web Analytics widely has two approaches log file analysis and page tagging. The later is more popular these days and huge number of people tends to ignore the former. Tagging approach would add some JavaScript snippet into your blog/ site to collect the visitor data. There are several 3-rd party tools available today to facilitate tagging methodology, like Google Analytics, StatsCounter, etc.
Log file analysis approach is normally in-house and they reside within the web server itself. The analysis is based on the web server log file.
Here I’m going to brief down the advantage of log file analysis method
Advantages of log file analysis
Fast. You don’t have a burden of executing extra JavaScript code on your site; web server logs every possible transaction related to the site.
Reliable. You don’t have to rely upon user’s browser to collect their data. JavaScript may not work in some browsers or it can be disabled.
Error Information. Web server log files captures every error message and failed requests which tagging method fails and technically impossible to achieve with page tagging. Also you would be able to track hot linking information.
Spider Details. Log files also captures the spider information. It would give you the idea about how many pages were indexed and how much bandwidth it consumed etc. This might give you an idea of spider that eats your bandwidth and you can block them using robots.txt if you want.
Privacy. The log file details are kept within your server and not shared to 3-rd party.
Ease. You don’t have burden of installing a script in each and every page / blog.
Limitation
Less Analysis. It doesn’t give you more detailed analysis; you have mostly do analysis manually.
Here is the list of web log file analysis software.
AWStats is one of the well-known open source web analytics-reporting tools. AWStats parses and analyzes the server log files and produces tables and bar graph output. The web reporting is done through a CGI script. AWStats would with most of the web server log format.
Webalizer is a fast and free web server log file analysis program. It produces HTML reports using tables. It has more detailed reporting.
Analog is pretty old web log analysis software among others. The data reports are made mostly using text formats.
W3Perl is more advanced free log file analyzer that allows you to gather HTTP, FTP and Email log files. It is written in Perl language and would work in any server with Perl support.
Visitors is a very fast web log analyzer for Linux, Windows, and other Unix-like operating systems. It takes as input a web server log file, and outputs statistics in form of different reports
Special Addition
FeedStater is an only available feed statistics tool for self hosted feeds. FeedStater is written in CGI and it will read the log file to report the feed statistics.
Also you should be aware of the fact Urchin is one the popular log file analyzer software and latter it was acquired by Google for its analytics.
Bottom line, I would say log file analyzer would be the best methodology but it should be used along with more advanced page tagging method to gain more insight on Web Analytics.
Have you ever used any log file analyzer before? Share your thoughts.
Popularity: 12% [?]
| Print article | This entry was posted by Benedict Herold on July 30, 2007 at 2:49 pm, and is filed under tools. Follow any responses to this post through RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback from your own site. |
Top 5 Popular Torrent Sites of 2007
about 2 years ago - 36 comments
Have you ever wondered about what would be the most 5 popular torrent site of 2007? Guess what, here we have the list of torrents that made into top five position based on popularity this year. Last year I compiled the list of popular torrents based on the few selection parameters. This year I have
4 tools to integrate Flickr photos into your website
about 3 years ago - 36 comments
Flickr is a great and best photo-sharing site, no second thoughts about it. But the inability Flickr to allow their users to brand their own photoset is notable. Flickr API’s comes in handy for the rescue. Flickr tools built over Flickr API allow the user to brand their photo into their own site. I have
Top 5 open source Wiki engines
about 3 years ago - 36 comments
A Wiki is a website which visitors can modify. Wikis are composed of web pages you can write on, enabling fast and easy collaboration Why Wiki? This is very commonly asked and answered question. But here is the few uses which I feel about a Wiki. Educational: It can be used as instrumental tool for
TechCorner Turns One Year Old
about 3 years ago - 53 comments
TechCorner is one year old now and I’m a year old blogger :=) I started writing TechCorner exactly one year ago, on July 18 2006. Looking back, it’s been a wonderful year, although it might not be the best year. Here is the current statistics of TechCorner. This will be marking 50th post on TechCorner,
Top 5 Free Notepad replacements
about 3 years ago - 77 comments
Notepad is one of the few tools that is been a part of Windows operating system and which have not been evolved since its initial release. Notepad is simple to use and lacks many features / enhancement. So it is always better to look for a replacement, which will overcome all known issues of Notepad.
Quick overview of available Blogging Platforms
about 3 years ago - 47 comments
Blogging has become a passion to lot of people these days (I can include myself). Technorati says a new blog appears every 2 seconds. And there are lot many novice blogger behind it. They will come across this question before they start a blog “which blogging platform to use?” The options are wide open and
StumbleUpon.com, Smarter way to discover sites
about 4 years ago - 6 comments
Don’t Search… Just Stumble!!! A new promising way to discover Thanks to StumbleUpon.com for bringing in lot of visitors to my blog site in the recent past; which made me write this post In recent weeks, I have been watching a steady increase in the number of referrers being sent from the site StumbleUpon. Moreover
about 3 years ago
Nice work buddy! Since I’m a stats addict, I read the whole post twice haha.
about 3 years ago
Brown Baron – Really? you should have used my voice feed instead;-) I’m glad that you found it interesting.
about 3 years ago
I’m also a stats addict.
Nice compilation. Thanks for the link.
about 3 years ago
Nice list buddy . I use awstats the most and sometime Google Analytics .
about 3 years ago
Personally I just use statcounter. It does a decent enough job, but to get a decent reading of your logs you have to pay for a premium package. My host does a decent job with built in log stats, so I don’t really need any other packages. I used to use Google’s Analytics, but found it slowed down my pages loading times. I also find that Google Sitemaps has some nice stats too.
about 3 years ago
Nice post there. I’ve tried StatCounter earlier.
about 3 years ago
Nirmal – You’re welcome
Lot of addicts huh?
Madhur Kapoor – Awstats gives you very decent details.
Tech Rant – sometimes installing 3rd party stats would slow down your site. I have faced this before with MyBlogLog stats.
Shankar Ganesh – Thank you
about 3 years ago
Have you ever heard of Mint? I hadn’t until recently but apparently a lot of people LOVE it.
about 3 years ago
Bush Machel – Yes, I have heard about it and their PRO account comes with 30$ monthly subscription. I have seen lot of probloggers using it effectively. BTW, what I have listed here is the unnoticed part of Web Analytics using log file analysis. Mint would also fall under page tagging methodology. However Mint is a great tool!
about 3 years ago
I agree Web Analytics is very important for any web business.
Using the right tool is equally important. I have tried numerous tools on the web , but I am in love with GoStats.com , it is really easy and simple to use and maintain.
about 3 years ago
Bendict that was one nice compilation I must say
I think Google Analytics has lost the charm that it used to have before therefore we should switch to some reliable web analytics software like the ones you mentioned above
By the way I think you might have heard about the new statistics tool that Microsoft is launching soon. I wonder how will that be
about 3 years ago
It’s great to see so many stats addicts. Now I don’t have to feel guilty haha.
about 3 years ago
Steve – I really doubt if you’re able to achieve complete analytics using Gostats.
DJ Flush – Thank you mate. having options wide open is good too. Microsoft’s Gatineau rt? I’m waiting for it.
Brown Baron – You’re always not alone
about 3 years ago
Nice list indeed.
However, too many stats is not good for the blogger.. haha.. especially to those that are stats addict..
about 3 years ago
Right on the money, ben. but, these are not very helpful for analysis, as it counts any page request, and hence you get those other than humans(bots).
also, time of page read, from, to etc. will not be there, right?
about 3 years ago
kuanhoong – Agreed. Getting addticted to too many will slow down you web site as well
but no worries in log analysis method.
Sumesh – you’re correct, I have mentioned it. It should be used in conjuction with other tools for better results. Sometimes you need to know information about bots too
Timing information will be present though.
about 3 years ago
I just got to your blog now for my first time, I think it’s great! Will sure be bookmarking you here. Keep us updated!
about 3 years ago
I use Awstats its available with almost all the cPanel nowadays
about 3 years ago
Zack – Welcome home
Glad to have you. hope to see around more often.
shashank – Awstats is the best of package that comes with Cpanel.!
about 3 years ago
Very well written Ben.. I do use Webalizer, but I ran into some problems with it on my server and I switched to AW stats..
about 3 years ago
Vijay – Thank you buddy.! Webalizer also consumes lot of temporary log files!
about 2 years ago
Nice list, Ben! I use AW Stats, and I'm satisfied with it.
about 2 years ago
I don’t feel that Google Analytics is for me. I compared the analytics tool I use (Logdy.com) with Statcounter and found that Logdy beats Statcounter in every detail. So I use Logdy.