Statistics is Fun!

As a quick pre-amble, if you're reading this from america, the Ukraine, Australia or Japan, let me know why in the comments section.  I'd be incredibly interested to know.

If statistical mathematics was all about website design in school, I would have probably paid far more attention.

I've just finished my last class for the day, and my final duties include stealing a number of massive rubbish bags for the myriad cans and bottles I've accrued (I will do that now actually).

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Done.  Seamless.

Updating my blog (which I'm doing now) and enveloping the various letters I've written over Summer.  It's come to around 35 pages in total, and they will be sent within the next week.

So I'm looking to change the blog around to make it more appealing.  I chose the black b/g with white wording because it's easier for me to read.  I've since been told that it is easier for no other human in the history of the earth, so I'm looking for a different layout.

In doing so, I came upon the statistics page of the blog, which logs myriad interesting stats regarding visitors to the site.  It's been up for about half the length of time this blog has, and I've known about it (and have previously commented upon the fact that a lot of Russians like this site (why is a good question.  My initial guess is something on this accidentally triggers something to do with Russian naked ladies, but that's just a guess) along with a number of other equally bizarre search strings) for a while.  I've always been interested in drawing more people to the site for purely egotistical reasons, and have found that adding labels and tags draws in people who would otherwise miss my site.  Of course they immediately leave, and I gain no new readership in this way, but the ol' hit counter ticks over nicely as a result.

Some interesting observations as of the 31st of August 2011:

Most people type in the blog URL directly, which means they've bookmarked the site, or know it by heart.  These people are obviously family members.

Someone (mum) keeps typing the blog url into google.

As a result google is my top referring site, with over 500 referrals.

Facebook is my second largest referral site, with over 300.  I post up photos and photo albums whenever I take some pictures, and link them to the site.  It appears to be working.

The highest non-mum related search query is, bizarrely, 'kim jong-il's comedy club.'  This links to an article I wrote about the documentary/movie I watched a while ago.  Find it here.  It's around link number 6 on google.  Mental.

The search 'cute animated gif,' is the second highest forwarder of traffic to the blog.  This is mental for two reasons.  Firstly, I've put that tag in maybe three of the posts, which isn't many.  Secondly, I have looked on google and can find my website NOWHERE NEAR the first five pages.  I must be buried somewhere beyond oblivion, just before you reach futility.  This shows how unknown this blog is, I suppose.

Also of interest are the countries who've accessed this website:

Ten countries are accounted for, by popularity and number of hits included:

UK                1785
US                1467
South Korea   1397
Japan            801
Australia        690
Belgium          269  (Thanks Freaksken!)
Russia           130  (Why are you visiting this blog?)
Malaysia        114  (WHY?  I have never mentioned anything related to Malaysia...  Ever!)
Canada          95  (Canada is nice and all, but there can't be much to do if you're looking at this)
Holland          80  (Maybe Freaksken went over the border to pick up some pot?)

That's the breakdown by country.  The first is easy to explain.  That's my family checking up on me.

The second is more puzzling.  Maybe others default to US google as I do?  But that still doesn't explain why the number is so high.  Would going through US google even count as a hit from the US?

SK is easy to explain as I was there.  Each time I write a post I usually look at it three or more times to check for spelling errors and grammatical mistakes.  If you disregard the SK number, you will probably come close to the number of visitors the site has had without my input.

Japan is the same, I assume they're all me.

The rest?  I have no idea.  Literally not a single clue.  I mean Malaysia?  Really?  I definitely want to go there now.  Apparently what's great for the ego is also great for tourism.

I should have probably added a nerd warning tag to the top of this post, but I'm doing it now instead.  If you're not a nerd, you can skip the next few paragraphs.  If you don't, your brain might well explode.

Unsurprisingly Windows is the platform of choice.  What I AM surprised about, however, is that a full 12% of my readership are homosexual, and willing to advertise that fact; a full 12% of people access this site using a Mac.  Please identify yourself in the comments section, I would love to hear from you.  I feel in this day and age - one of acceptance and social awareness, the internet is a dark void of homophobia.  Feel free to come forward, you won't be mocked here.

Virtually none of the visitors use Linux.  The page quotes a 5% usage rate, but I was using Linux for over a year, so those are all me.

Nineteen people have accessed from blackberries (definitely note me!), twelve from Android, eleven from an ipad and four from ipods.  One hundred and ninety two accesses from iphones hints towards Amanda and dad.  Hey guys, can you even read this?  That screen is pretty small...

Browser breakdown is much more competitive, with 37% being IE, 29% being Firefox and 16% being Chrome.  Unfortunately for google, their superior browsers' statistics are skewed, as I use their awesome box-into-internet for everything, so the above problems regarding my own pageviews applies.

I have 12 hits from something called 'Jakarta Commons HTTP client.'  I don't even...

Seven hits from 'Gran Paradiso.'  What in the...

Clicking away from the 'all time,' option, I see that I've had four hits from the Ukraine today.  What in the world.

The reason I've geeked out in a major way today?  I just received a few pictures (a couple good, most blurry as sin) from the trip to Disney Sea; I can essentially afford to bore you with this post because no one will read it, once the pictures post goes up above it!

Genius!