Measure Map - rather nifty weblog analytics
So, I just got an invite (well, this morning) to 'alpha' test (me and 50% of the blog world I expect) Adaptive Path's new weblog analytics app, MeasureMap.
Detailed screenshots available here.
To be honest, I'd kind of given up worrying about stats on participo about a year or so ago - courtesy of some javascript refer code I;d played with, this domain was being hit with tons of refer spam (of the grimmest pornsite kind) and so I killed referrer logs and generally didn't worry about it.
My main reason for signing up to peek at MeasureMap was to experience an Adaptive Path application - the crowners of Ajax and the user experience gurus.
So, I was intrigued how they would present such an environment, both from an information design perspective, technical implementation (flash, ajax etc.) and the actual process of integrating an application into my weblog.
Bloody well, actually. It's an excellent bit of kit - the integration was as I expected - a little javascript nugget in the main templates, that passes the browser activity to measuremap. But the setup guide was extremely well written - a quick filter to see the weblog I use and then showing specific screenshots and placement highlight in the template area.
The actual reports are really, really well executed. They use flash to provide zoom in maps, and interaction (drag out stats, reveal nested info). It's presumably caching info, Ajax style, for rapid reveals.
The smartest thing about the interface is the writing - it's excellent. Crisp, conversational without verbosity, and the written interface provides valuable context against the graphs. For example, the entry for a specific post reads: "This post attracted 1 visitor. That's the same as an average day." It's a really well written interface into the information being presented.
The natural, feel of it being just 'right' is, I think, because this is purely about analytics for weblogs and specifically, for my weblog software (they support all the platforms, of course), so I don't need to interpret exit paths etc. plus it groups/understands comments and their relationships to posts.
So, a gushing review, really - and of course, smart word-of-mouth marketing from Adaptive Path. But it is really cool - word of mouth works if it's worth mouthing the word.
So, I think Measuremap will be a must-have for anyone running any sort of popular blog, but also I could see a use for corporate, KM-focused blogs....hmmm, how much would I pay for this service...
Missing a few features in this alpha/beta - RSS/feeds, and browser by platform...feeds is definitely on the way, and platform, it's an easy stat - I wonder why it's not in there?
These sort of 'friendly' stats make really compelling business case for blogs as effective Knowledge Management and collaboration platforms. I mean, when did you see those sorts of stats for small, project team based email?
