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WebWord Weblog Posting Posting Date: December 30, 2002 WebWord Comment -- Back in August I posted a link to ClickTracks. I've been told that they are up to version 3.0 now. What are the improvements? What do you think?
Reader Comments...
still crashes on large log files ex: anything near 100mg. Can't report on flash navigation. Stats do not always align with navigation in the view mode. NOT RECOMMENDED. Posted by: on December 31, 2002 12:45 PM
I tried it out. There are several problems with this product. The first and foremost is that it uses log files and only log files as a metric. The second problem with this product is that it does not show you clear click-through paths. The results are per page and by percentage of what they clicked, who left, who came from within the site and who came from an external site, etc. This product only indicates what log files can show, and thus, there are several other products on the market that can do the same ranging from WebTrends to Urchin and so forth. IMHO, nothing can beat good old user testing. Posted by: Nick Finck on December 31, 2002 01:35 PM
Follow-up from comment #1 ( anonymous ) : Large log files : I'm puzzled that you find a problem with bigger files. I personally push 1Gb through this code every week, and plenty of other folks do also. Clearly there is a bug if it crashes for you, but it would surprise me if the cause were large files. What response did you get from the support guys ? Did they help you work out the cause of the problem ?
Could not try it even though I was much impressed with the demo and your previous posts on WebWord. Here's how it went: -Read the discussion > visited site > very impressed > ready to post a rave review I could have saved myself all the time and frustration had the download page mentioned complete system requirements. The system requirements stated on the download page are: Windows 98, NT 4 (service pack 6), ME, 2000 or XP Pentium II 300 Mhz, 128Mb RAM, 500 Mb disk. The system I use exceeds the minimum requirement yet I could not install it. There's no mention that the software runs on IE and only Version 5.5 and above or that it requires an advanced version of installation software than what came with my OS. I’ve installed dozens of software on the current installation software and never faced this request. The problem occurred because you assume that everyone will have IE5.5 or above. Depending upon which browser statistics you see the share of version 5 could be anywhere between 15-35% of all browsers. I admit that the percentage will be much lower for customers in the intended audience, but I see no reason why the requirement can’t be mentioned before users are required to make the decision to download the software. I’ve used a few log analyzers in the past and was looking forward to this one. In fact, I was quite impressed with what you had to say on this page. I hope the system requirements will soon clearly reflect the complete requirements.
Parsed through my 80 mb file fine, decent display options, interesting ability to take percentages to links. Could be cheaper. Posted by: James on January 2, 2003 07:03 PM
Manu, I'm very grateful for your patient explaining of the problems you encountered. IE 5.5 was not part of the system requirements simply because of an oversight by the marketing copywriter. Now fixed. I'm really sorry also that you ran into problems with the installer. This has been a constant problem for us, and it has always amazed me how much grief this simple task causes. From the start we have worked to make installation simple, but it's crazy how complex this turns out to be. http://www.clicktracks.com/blogs/ has the full horrors of the history. Thanks again for giving us feedback. You would be amazed how hard it can be sometimes to get feedback from customers / evaluators, and yet we need it so desperately, so we know what needs fixing.
Glad that my feedback was found to be useful and that it led to change.
You would be amazed how hard it can be sometimes to get feedback from customers / evaluators, and yet we need it so desperately, so we know what needs fixing. I've had a little experience with seeking customer feedback on a small e-commerce site. About 18% of all users [not just those who made a purchase] volunteered some kind of feedback. There were four different modes to collect it – rating and comments area [radio button + textbox] alongside product descriptions; general feedback at bottom of every page [textbox]; e-mail and a questionnaire. Users do respond if you make it easy for them and they’re convinced that the company genuinely wants it. Everyone likes to be listened. No arguing this fact. Looking at your download page, no one can imagine that feedback would be so welcome. The least you can do is to give a link to a page where users can enter comments. The way it is now, ClickTracks seems more interested in harvesting e-mails. If you really want to hear from users, you can reflect that by replacing the subscription area with a form for users to send comments/questions [include an optional e-mail field] titled something like "Trouble...? Write us." That should shoot up the number of e-mails your receive from users dramatically. About the installation problems....well, if you are aware of these problems there’s really no excuse for keeping the users in dark until they find it out for themselves. I’m aware that it doesn’t augur too well with your mythical user [sandwich in hand], but hey...he’s never going to return if he downloads something for half an hour and is told that he can’t install it! If you tell him beforehand, there’s a chance he’ll download the installation file when needed. You’ll just have to figure out how to tell him of possible impending problems without scaring him away before he starts.
Of course, the ideal solution for the installation issue would be to ensure that users are not made to download addition software just to run the installation file. Really, I download shareware all the time and have never been told that I'm missing an installation file. Posted by: on January 3, 2003 01:50 AM
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