Monday, October 19, 2009

Who Reads, Who Doesn't?

I haven't done one of those "who reads, who doesn't?" postings in a while, noting states in which this blog has had no readers in the past month, and states in which it is heavily read.

Bilgrimage continues not to attract readers in several Western states. This month, there have been no reads in Montana, Wyoming, and Utah.

By contrast, the blog has a heavy readership in the two coastal states of New York and California, as well as in New Hampshire. There are also significant numbers of readers in all the New England states, Ohio, and North Carolina, followed by Minnesota, Wisconsin, Illinois, and the two Pacific Northwest areas of Washington and Oregon. And Texas.

I continue to be interested by the number of readers who log in from other countries, particularly Canada--particularly because I think my focus is often parochially on the U.S. The little flag counter on the homepage of the blog shows the nations in which there have been readers.

I'm very inept with internet technology. I wonder if any reader can help me understand a discrepancy between the number of readers listed in the counter on the homepage, and the number listed in Google's analytics program. One day last week, for instance, the analytics program told me there had been 337 pageviews, whereas the flag counter for the same day showed 233 views.

So I gather these two programs track different viewing activity? Perhaps the flag counter tracks each viewer, whereas the analytics program tracks each page viewed?

If any reader of the blog can help me understand those discrepancies, I'd be grateful. And above all, I'm grateful that folks seem willing to listen to me keep on talking (sometimes obsessively) about the issues that concern me.