Web Analytics as Internet Research

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Web Analytics as Internet Research

• Dr. Norm Friesen
• June 22, 2007

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What is a Web Log file?

• Automatically generated by Web server software
• Records all user activity occurring on the server
• Is generated in a number of standardized formats
  (one defined by the W3C)
• There are many different software packages for
  analyzing this
• (sometimes you can access analysis directly on
  the Website itself)

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What information is recorded?
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What can does this say?

• How many people are visiting a site
• What country/city their computer is located in
• When they visited the site
• Did they return to the site
• What they downloaded when they visited a site
• How much time they spent at a given website

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What this research doesnt say

• Who was using the computer or browser when the
  visit was made
• What they were (or werent) looking at when they
  visited the Website
• E.g. whether they left the page up on the
  computer while away.
• E.g. was their visit purposeful or an accident?
• Race, class, gender, age habits in using the
  Internet outside of the one site.
• Expectations, reading, creation of the page

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Associated kinds of research

• Quantitative data gathering
• E.g. can be used as a type of social network
  analysis
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