tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-53448148768300713292024-02-19T09:54:37.361+05:30New and Emerging Trends in Media TechnologiesA blog on Web Analytics, Open Source Tools and how it is changing the landscape of the Media IndustryMAGNEThttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04912352685578289055noreply@blogger.comBlogger43125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5344814876830071329.post-4705848704646326012009-03-08T17:54:00.003+05:302009-03-08T18:02:30.128+05:30An Ode to OpenSource-Akshay RanganathLast week, in our office, we were working on building an application that needed some graphs and charting capability. Lots of options came up, from Flash, to Silverlight, CSS, AJAX and so on. However, when the timelines got clearer, we had to look for something that was fast and already doing most of the work..The way we went about deciding on the solution and building a small MAGNEThttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04912352685578289055noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5344814876830071329.post-35641466157475716882009-01-28T08:10:00.000+05:302009-01-28T08:12:07.707+05:30Ubuntu & Chrome - Dual Attack on Microsoft?-Akshay Ranganath Today, I was just going through some of the popular news items on Digg and found some interesting articles. Microsoft which has been the leader in desktop OS and the browser market (despite alternatives) is now suddenly in the midst of a dual modal attack. Until now, the competition to MS was more ideological - GNU movement that defined what is *free* but failed to provide anyMAGNEThttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04912352685578289055noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5344814876830071329.post-11417721941285908372009-01-28T08:09:00.001+05:302009-01-28T17:30:54.965+05:30Google Chrome is now off beta-Akshay Ranganath As per the Google Blog dated 11th Dec, Google Chrome is now off beta. Frankly though, I am so used to FF that Google Chrome never really registered with me. I did use it more as a fancy thing for a few days and then sort of forgot. How was it with you guys? Any ardent fans of Chrome out there? One thing that is not clear is if users will need to reinstall the new code or if theMAGNEThttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04912352685578289055noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5344814876830071329.post-26811263049426664162009-01-28T08:08:00.000+05:302009-01-28T08:09:34.657+05:30PiWik v/s Google Analytics-Akshay Ranganath For a particular need, I had done a comparison of Piwik versus Google Analytics as a web analytics tool. Thought of sharing the same. Points considered in evaluation Cost / TCODevelopment or customization timeFeatures needed (traffic reports v/s commerce metrics)Ease of integration to other marketing productsMaturity of Analytics implemenation Advantages of Piwik All MAGNEThttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04912352685578289055noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5344814876830071329.post-46059719038432426062009-01-28T08:07:00.001+05:302009-01-28T17:35:30.278+05:30Google updates Google Analytics solution-Akshay Ranganath Google recenty announce bundling of more Enterprise class features into its Analytics package (See Google Analytics blog at http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/blogspot/tRaA/~3/428822828/more-enterprise-class-features-added-to.html) In short, the new features added were: User Interface refresh.AdSense now integrated into GA.Advanced visualizations: Motion Charts!Custom Reports!MAGNEThttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04912352685578289055noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5344814876830071329.post-78314890825080113782009-01-28T08:03:00.002+05:302009-01-28T17:33:16.868+05:30Marketing campaign analysis & tracking via Google Analytics In the world of web analytics, one of the fundamental pillars of understanding the site behaviour is through segmentation whose “is to allow your marketing/sales program to focus on the subset of prospects” (1). One of the methods of segmenting the visitors to a web site is via campaigns. It is defined in as:A specific, defined series of activities used in marketing a new or changed product orMAGNEThttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04912352685578289055noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5344814876830071329.post-87193520494704087822009-01-28T08:01:00.000+05:302009-01-28T08:02:49.304+05:30Google Chrome - A Quick Review-Akshay Ranganath Today, Google is launching it's new browser called "Google Chrome" as a beta in more than 100 countries. This is to be an open source browser, taking a lot from the communities of Firefox and Apple. Reasoning on the lauch, the official Google Blog says, "We search, chat, email and collaborate in a browser. And in our spare time, we shop, bank, read news and keep in touch MAGNEThttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04912352685578289055noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5344814876830071329.post-80811068368762299672009-01-28T08:00:00.001+05:302009-01-28T08:01:37.082+05:30Should I use a Third party or a First party cookie-Akshay RanganathIn this artilce, I'd like to point out the difference between the third and first party cookies and the relative merits / demerits of both. Its based on the article by Avinash Kaushik's blog and the book "Web Analytics Demystified" by Eric Peterson. This is an important cnsideration that you should take care before starting an analytics implementation. It could determine the MAGNEThttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04912352685578289055noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5344814876830071329.post-90082995557968336232008-06-28T11:56:00.000+05:302008-06-28T12:01:15.529+05:30Short guide to using Web Analytics Solution Profiler (WASP)Today, I was just looking at something and stumbled a nifty tool call W.A.S.P. Its a plugin for Firefox and stands for Web Analytics Solution Profiler. Freely downloadable from http://wasp.immeria.net, this tool can give you the metrics being collected from your site - and the actual analytics tool being used on that site.For someone using tools like Google Analytics (GA) this is a big boon. ThisMAGNEThttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04912352685578289055noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5344814876830071329.post-57414610639707608582008-03-16T09:46:00.000+05:302008-03-16T09:50:10.675+05:30phpMyVisites: A Short Review-Akshay Ranganath Lately, we've been conducting a lot of tools evaluation for a new client. One of the things that we were looking was to see if any Web Analytics tool could help us in readily getting the reports for our client. Here's a short synopsis of our reporting needs and a mapping to phpMyVisites. Reporting needs of client Our client wanted to gather some information on the usage MAGNEThttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04912352685578289055noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5344814876830071329.post-83966843524123642802008-01-26T11:16:00.000+05:302008-01-26T11:27:44.458+05:30Help please: Which Linux distro is best for mom and dad?-Akshay Ranganath My Problem Well, as usual, my desktop running Windows XP got infected by virus and died yesterday (Apparantly, AVG did not help). I was about to re-install XP on it when it dawned on me that ever since I'd installed XP, I was having trouble with the machine. You see, my machine is an old Pentium, 555 Mhz with 192MB RAM. It takes eons to run XP and crashes with Windows MAGNEThttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04912352685578289055noreply@blogger.com11tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5344814876830071329.post-83437039042591650352008-01-17T22:06:00.001+05:302008-02-04T07:56:37.978+05:30Tutorial: Analyzing trends through Web Analytics-Akshay Ranganath After a long break from the field of analytics, I am back to it! I was just waiting for the data to be collected on my blog to take this further. In this article, I'll try and explain the importance of trends and how you can derive valuable actionable (and curious) data from the metrics. The way the article is written is how the thought process went on in my mind. So, it's not MAGNEThttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04912352685578289055noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5344814876830071329.post-31419814158879240912008-01-17T22:04:00.000+05:302008-01-17T22:05:34.960+05:30Article: Lessons on corporate blogging-Akshay Ranganath In his article, Lessons from Corporate Blogging , Nicholas Carr, the author of the controversial paper, 'Does IT Matter ' puts in his thoughts over corporate blogging. Here's what he has to says: Set some sensible and hygienic ground rules - don't be too stifling but, at the same time, don't allow anything and everything on the corporate blogRemember that a blogger can createMAGNEThttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04912352685578289055noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5344814876830071329.post-65251425137619033402008-01-17T22:02:00.000+05:302008-01-17T22:04:25.248+05:30What my guts tells me about future of media?-Akshay Ranganath There was a wonderful article on how where the Media as a space is headed. This is an article by a VC about how he sees his kids use the new media and what he can derive from their usage. In short, he feels: DVDs will be big mainly for the TV shows - it delivers more bang for bucks than movies.Movies are cool in theatres - stillBooks are still read - the old way. Reading MAGNEThttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04912352685578289055noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5344814876830071329.post-4895143778500747542007-12-24T19:58:00.000+05:302007-12-24T19:59:47.827+05:30A Resounding accolade to Open-ness!-Akshay Ranganath In the hard-headed economically oriented and prestigious magazine, The Economist, Open Source has come in for a lot of praise. Read the article on predictions for the year 2008 with regards to adoption of Linux based machines by enterprises. Sample this: Asus Eee comes at a nifty price of just $ 400 - pre-loaded with Open Source tools along with Linux as the OS. Compare this toMAGNEThttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04912352685578289055noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5344814876830071329.post-13164310143068568922007-12-08T11:52:00.001+05:302007-12-08T11:52:48.341+05:30Malacious help on Linux - and how to avoid it!Today, I read this intriguing article on dangerous or malacious code on Ubuntu. The article was quite an revealeation in terms of how someone can ensure that your life with Linux is destroyed! The post talks about some really malacious commands that were provided as solution to questions on various Ubuntu formums. They were cleaverly disguised as simple steps for solviing dialy computing issue MAGNEThttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04912352685578289055noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5344814876830071329.post-59929878364381696032007-12-08T11:41:00.000+05:302007-12-08T11:42:38.518+05:30Why resourcing is difficult for Web Analytics?Lately, I had to take sessions on Web Analytics to multiple user groups. The types of questions that were asked and the focus from the groups opened my eyes on a problem that we'd never realized till now - identifying the right ‘fit' of people for Web Analytics. Come to think of it: When you have a Java project, you look for a Java resource. When you have a .Net one - you get a .Net person. But,MAGNEThttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04912352685578289055noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5344814876830071329.post-91061276308188051872007-11-04T20:13:00.000+05:302007-11-04T20:14:36.769+05:30How to design website to be web analytics friendly?-Akshay RanganathLast week, we received a few requests for implementing Analytics code on over 1000 pages of a client web site. It was while breaking our heads over the sheer amount of mundane task that we realized on the potential of making this process a lot more easier.BackgroundNow a days, almost everyone wants to have analytics code implemented on their site. Given that Google is offering itMAGNEThttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04912352685578289055noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5344814876830071329.post-33460921225912468932007-11-02T14:30:00.000+05:302007-11-02T14:49:59.815+05:307 Web Analytics Sins - White Paper by ClickTracks-Akshay Ranganath Read this nice article on the 7 Web Analytics Sins from ClickTrack. The 7 sins are: Sin #1: Simple Visitor CountsLearn the factors that can potentially skew visitor data. Sin #2: Search Term PopularityUnderstand why marketers must concentrate on the quality of visitors a keyword delivers, rather than the quantity. Sin #3: The Linear FunnelLearn the reasons why traditional MAGNEThttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04912352685578289055noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5344814876830071329.post-12314798874757322192007-10-29T17:11:00.000+05:302007-11-02T14:50:21.943+05:30Case Study - How to analyze a Web Analytics Report?Akshay RanganathWhat to see in your Analytics Report?Once you have for the Analytics Code onto the site, what do you start to measure? Here’s a short article on it with Google Analytics and a Blog on Ubuntu Linux as an example.The site used for recording is our own groupMAGNET blog, http://groupmagnet.blogspot.com/.Reports from DashboardVisitor CountThe very first report on the site reports on MAGNEThttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04912352685578289055noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5344814876830071329.post-51667481476677188572007-10-15T22:11:00.000+05:302007-11-02T14:50:44.044+05:303 Months after Ubuntu...-Akshay RanganathIts been three months since I installed Ubuntu 7 (Fiesty Fawn) on my laptop. Looking back at the way I've used it and issues faced, here's my take on the system:1. User InterfaceThe UI is definitely simple and easy to use. Quite nice, fast and robust. Maybe not as sleek as Windows but, it gets the job done. I did not have time to explore various other themes - so maybe, there areMAGNEThttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04912352685578289055noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5344814876830071329.post-84960013152537173172007-08-15T19:12:00.000+05:302007-08-15T22:37:31.632+05:30Why del.icio.us is more Web2.0 than digg.com?-Akshay RanganathToday, I was reading the book, "The Long tail" and I started to wonder on which of the sites digg.com or del.icio.us offers a more user-oriented behaviour? After all Web2.0 is about this freedom right?Where del.icio.us is better for targeting as compared to digg.com?So, here's my thoughts on it:As per the digg.com sites submitting methodology, users choose a URL, add in the MAGNEThttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04912352685578289055noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5344814876830071329.post-59607139237861304542007-07-29T23:58:00.000+05:302007-07-31T01:24:50.453+05:30Adsense FeaturesLet us look into some features that are given by adsense which make a publisher’s life a hell lot easier.1. Channels:Channels are primarily used to determine which type of ads or what pages are earning the most adsense revenue. Channels offer a deeper level of analysis than that provided by overall revenue reports. Channels allow to break down reporting to monitor the performance of sites, MAGNEThttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04912352685578289055noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5344814876830071329.post-64408438708002259762007-07-29T02:23:00.001+05:302007-07-29T02:43:38.177+05:30Adsense BasicsLets discuss a few things about Google adsense. Once you get your account approved you will have 3 different ways to make money.1.Adsense for content2.Adsense for search3.ReferralsFor all the 3 types, Google gives a JavaScript code snippet, that can be placed on any webpage and ads will be rendered on the page immediately after placing the code. Let us know something about these 3 ways:1. AdsenseMAGNEThttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04912352685578289055noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5344814876830071329.post-37050390162535365002007-07-28T15:57:00.000+05:302007-07-28T16:09:51.100+05:30How to install packages on Ubuntu behind a Proxy Server?-Akshay RanganathWhile working behind a proxy, the normalsudo apt-get install may not work. This is because of the command line interface does not detect the proxy settings. To ensure a smooth installation without unnecessary hassles of digging through the settings, using the UI based approach is a lot more easier.5 steps to setup Synaptics Package Manager for a proxy based networkOpen the MAGNEThttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04912352685578289055noreply@blogger.com0