Tuesday, April 01, 2008

Why would I want Feedjit?

As some of you may have noticed, I recently put a couple of embellishments on my blogpage. These include a survey app and a very simple scripting app that tells me who visited my page from where and left from where (branded by Feedjit).

The survey has been a spectacular flop, with 2 votes so far (I must shamefacedly confess that both were me, to see how the damn thing works!!). But maybe that was because the survey question was un-imaginative. The other application is what puzzles me, once I sit down to think of it. Why would I want to know who visits my blog page? These could be some reasons:
  • I want to generate advertising revenues by showing off my multi-national readership (not the case, since this is a not-for-profit enterprise).
  • I want to tailor content according to readership (I dont think I am that good or versatile yet!).
  • I am curious (a bit, but not REALLY).
  • I go on an ego trip by looking at how many countries I have readership in!!

Of all these, I think #4 wins hands down. However, this application is an inaccurate barometer for measuring countrywide readership and getting grandiose thoughts of being a widely loved and respected writer :-) This is because a lot of internet traffic is routed via firewalls / filters / gateways which reside in the US / Europe. For example, whenever I was logged into my corporate network at my last employers, I would always show up as a US origin IP address. So there is not much sanctity to what Feedjit shows me.

It does have its uses though (mostly for reason #3). For example, looking at what the damn thins says right now, I notice that the last person to visit is from 'Petaling Jaya, Wilayah Persekutuan'.

Clearly, I am much intrigued by who could be living in 'Petaling Jaya, Wilayah Persekutuan' which looks like it is in Malaysia. I try to rack my brains about classmates / colleagues / friends who could be in Malaysia right now. Cant think of anyone. I also notice that I myself show as having arrived from 'Bombay, Maharashtra', whereas I am indisputably in Delhi.

In conclusion, I find this application not of much use, and have decided to remove it from this page! I aslo want to ask other buddies who have this application - What is your reason for putting the thing on your page?

4 comments:

Alam said...

Oh i missed a poll .. here's the reason ... I don't read your blog by going to your URL ...i use google reader to read the feed from your blog ... that damn thing shows just the post and the pictures in the post ... all blog embellishments (and polls) just don't reach me ... will make it a point to visit the blog for reading ...
I don't have feedit, but I have another application .. which keeps track of where-from and where-to as well as hits/ unique hits(not accurate) etc

My reason is mostly #3 in your list .. I don't have a widely spread readership .. India ... US (lots of India showing up as US) one each in UK, Germany, Swiss, Singapore .. whenever some new country shows up ... i usually know who the person is ... most people are my friends/batchmates/ etc .. there are a few posts which attract people directly thru google searches either on cancer or a few other topics

Alam said...

guru malaysia pareekh jain ho sakta hai .. merey blog par bhi hai ....


waisey ek sawal why is this post tagged as "optics" ???

Nothing Spectacular said...

haan it must be pareekh!

'optics' is legacy from my consulting jargon days :-D

as in - i used the poll and the tracker to improve the 'optics' of the blog site

Bland Spice said...

hmm you're right... it never makes any sense to me.

isn't there a better application - taht shows just the logged on guys who came to your blog?