Google Analytics

I must confess, I set up Google Analytics a few weeks ago (or whenever it was required), and I forgot about it. It took me a few minutes to find it through Gmail, but reading it was interesting.

So far, the bulk of visitors have been using Firefox, with 31 visits (70%). Next up is IE, with 12 visits (27%). Finally, we have one lone visit via Safari (2%). Glad to know I'm not the only one in the class with a Mac :)

Not surprisingly, 30 visits have been via a cable internet connection. 7 have been on DSL, 3 have been using T1, and 2 on dialup (really?). There were 2 visits from an "unknown" connection. GA didn't give any further information on the unknown connection.

I also learned about the network locations from whence these visitors came. The bulk were on Comcast, which is what I use at home - I think I'm unintentionally driving up my own stats.

Some of the information seemed a little random, like the screen resolution of my visitors (68% had 1024x768), all of my visitors have been from NJ (good to know, no out-of-state stalkers), and 6 visits have been via Bloglines. I can see how that information would be valuable to a more serious blogger, but it really doesn't serve me a purpose.

Google docs, for better or for worse

Google Docs and services like it have their place in both a physical and virtual college campus, particularly with students who are working on group projects. For use as a collaborative document service, Google Docs is great. It's easy to set up and share, and has basic editing tools. Personally, I don't see myself using it as a Microsoft Word replacement, but it serves its purpose as a quick and easy document editor.

However, I can see why some people, both faculty and students, would be opposed to it. If it's a class-wide effort like ours, everyone would need a Google account. Most people already have one and wouldn't be bothered by it, but for the technophobes that somehow still exist, it would be another online account to keep track of. I can see how a prof wouldn't want to have to keep track of various accounts, and how students would not want their prof to be able to "check in" on unfinished work.

Luckily, some of my previous professors have welcomed the idea of document sharing. I had a professor last year who used a wetpaint wiki in lieu of eCompanion. Another professor required the class to keep blogs. She used hers as a general announcement tool, we used ours to turn in assignments. For a "progressive" or "nontraditional" professor, social software such as this can be successfully harnessed to enhance the class. It's a move I'd like to see more people make.

Bloglines vs. Google Reader

As Steve put it in the homework review video, I'm giving all of my intellectual life over to Google. Well, not all of it, but certainly most of it. Ok, all of it. I now have three Gmail accounts - my personal account, an account to which my Rutgers webmail is forwarded, and the account required for this class. My personal account gets the most use, and from it I can chat, schedule my calendar, edit documents (ok, I don't use this feature too much, but it's been helpful), post pictures, and get directions. And now, I can read my blogs from it, too. I love Google Reader.

Let me start by saying that I had no idea what RSS was before this class. The RSS in Plain English video from Commoncraft really cleared things up. After watching that video and this week's other videos, I felt pretty confident that a service like Bloglines would really help me keep track of this class's blogs, as well as the other blogs I read.

Bloglines was cumbersome to set up, and I didn't like the subcription process. Once a URL is entered into the subscribe box, a list of subscription options pops up. First, at least three different feeds are presented. They all look exactly the same. Nowhere is the difference between these feeds explained. After choosing one and hoping it works, there are several more options. First, folder selection. This worked, but I'd prefer to tag the blogs, and have the option to put them in more than one folder - not really necessary for this class, but helpful for my personal blog-reading. Then, there are display settings to be dealt with. I couldn't find any user-defined-default setting for this - the settings for every blog had to be entered individually. This was annoying and time consuming. However, I think the real reason I didn't like Bloglines is because it's a totally new service to me, and I don't like to wade in unfamiliar waters.

Google Reader, on the other hand, worked wonderfully. Since I'm already a Google/Gmail user, I expected the simple interface. Adding a blog was as easy as inserting a link. The settings are universal and are easy to use. One thing I did struggle with at first was adding tags to blogs. I eventually figured out that GR's folders act as tags. I added my Bloglines feeds to GR, and I also added my most frequently-read blogs to my personal GR account. Setting up those blogs was time consuming only because of the volume I had to add; actually adding them was easy. I opened up the blogs in individual tabs, copied and pasted the URL, and closed the tab. Easy cheesy.