Category: Web

The counter I use on my website added a new feature today (at least I just noticed it today) called “out clicks”. Site Meter has always been great because it tells me how (most) visitors get to my site: Since the referring URL usually contains the search terms, I also can see what words they used in their search on Google, Yahoo, MSN, or Ask Jeeves. They also supply the entry page, exit page, total pages viewed, local time, browser, operating system, etc. But I never knew where they went when they were done. Now, apparently, I will sometimes find that out.

The “out click” field shows the link on my page they clicked on and where that link leads to. For instance, in the example below a guy in Oregon, working for Xerox, used Google at 10:46 AM local time to search for “ipod aa battery,” and visited 7 pages before finally clicking on the “$14” link for the Griffin PowerPod iPod car power adapter (I’ll find out tomorrow if anybody bought one of those). However, it doesn’t track everyone, maybe 10% of visitors. That may be because either they didn’t click on a link on my page or they had javascript turned off (most of the stats require javascript).

Pretty neat. Also amazing how much you can find out about a visitor when they come to your web site.

Continue reading “Out Clicks”

I have inherited webmaster duties for a DOT employees organization. For the most part the site is very neglected, somebody put a lot of effort into it one time and then nothing really came of it. It also uses frames. The problem I have with frames is you never really know where you are and in this case there are eight different local branches of the club, plus the statewide organization. The colors and buttons are kind of simple. I thought using I could use a format kind of like what the blogs use where there are two columns, one for links and one for content. But I’m terrible with colors and didn’t just want to use Vicksburg Olive like my blog does, even though I like the way those colors work together.

I found a neat website that offers a color wheel. It may be in different places because they guy says he will let you put the source on your own page (with ads), but this is where I found it:

Colour Scheme Chooser

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Susan and I recently rented a newly released DVD starring Nicole Kidman and Sean Penn. Later on I was writing the review (B+) and I wanted to look up some information on the movie, so I went to Google. I entered “the translator” (not in quotes). It gave about 3 results and then under that said “Results for The Interpreter” with the first link going to imdb’s page about the movie I had watched and whose title I had not been able to remember correctly (getting only “the” correct). I’ve always liked that Google could detect misspellings and ask “Did you mean . . . “, but this is a new level of outhinking otherwise less intelligent human beings.

I don’t think this is good for our future. Evolution worked for centuries making people stronger, with better vision, hearing, etc. Then we came up with machines that could make up for our weaknesses, made glasses for the myopic and hearing aids for the hard of hearing. Now Google is taking away the penalties for being stupid.

By the way, I tried this on MSN and Yahoo just now and got a bunch of results for translator-related stuff.

When I started putting rotating quotes in the blog description I would go to Google and enter the name of a movie and then the word “quotes” (not in quotes) and the first link would be imdb’s page of quotes for that movie. Compare that with going to imdb, searching for the title of a movie, picking that movie from the results page, then scrolling down to some quotes and clicking “more”. It’s actually easier to navigate imdb’s website using Google than it is by going to imdb.

After some success with the rotating banner images, I decided to take Jeb up on his offer of doing rotating descriptions. I’ve had Gandalf’s quote about tempermental wizards for a while now. I don’t really have much else to say, but I picked up some movie quotes from Holy Grail, Raising Arizona, and Princess Bride. I like some of the quotes, but others have to go. If there are any you don’t like, let me know and I’ll get rid of them.

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In an effort to have as nice a blog as Kelly and Eric , I added pictures to the banner of my blog. There are 14 different pictures that can show up at the top of the page. With the exception of the Escher lizard pattern, Susan or I took all of the pictures. Most are from our trips including Baja California, Galapagos, New York, and Colorado, but also local trips to Stone Mountain and the Kangaroo Center. One (a funny one of Katie) is from my backyard. You can keep clicking Refresh (or Reload) to see more images. Or you can cheat and click here to see a list of them.

Continue reading “New Banner Pictures”