Cool Toys

I've been blogging here for more than a year now. When I started this blog back in June of 2008, my purpose was simply to provide a place where I could talk about some of the ideas I have about healthcare standards. Over the last year, this blog has also become I tool that I use to crystalize some of these ideas. Forcing myself to write about them brings clarity, at least in my own mind, on what I want to say.

One of the cool toys that I've been using since I started this blog is Google Analytics. I track the number of hits I get on this blog on a regular basis. The nice thing about the service is that it is free. I can do all of this tracking without paying a cent, which is good, since this blog is really a personally funded activity. It was extremely easy to hook my blog up to the service, and having done so, I get a great deal of information out of it.

Here are some interesting statistics that I know as a result of using it:
1. People are reading this blog from 64 different countries on six different continents (I don't have any data on Antarctica stats, but then, neither does Google).

2. The top five countries are:

1. The US (70%)
2. Canada (4%)
3. India (3%)
4. Australia (2%)
5. The UK (2%)

I happen to know that Canada is underreported since I know of several Canadian readers who read this blog through syndication in livejournal (http://motorcycleguy.livejournal.com/)

3. Firefox is gaining in popularity (almost 40% of readers us it, up from 30% a year ago), and IE is losing (down to 50% from 70% a year ago)

4. The five most popular postings are:

5. Understanding Genetics (5%)
4. What is HITSP Doing? (5%)
3. Reporting Genetic Test Results (6%)
2. If I had a Hammer (14%)
1. Clinical Decision Support (17%)

5. The five most popular days are (to which I've attached the most likely article):

5. July 8, 2008 (Understanding Genetics)
4. July 17, 2009 (Hello again, it's me, stirring up the pot.)
3. August 6, 2009 (Gozinta and Gosouta yesterday)
2. July 29, 2009 (At the rim of the dam or the edge of a precipice?)
1. August 5, 2009 (I have no clue which article was most viewed)

6. The four the most popular weeks are the last four. My fifth most popular week was the first week I wrote in this blog.

Obviously, the more I write, the more I'm read. I've broken several records repeatedly in the last month. Readership has risen from a low of 38 visits in a week a month ago to nearly 200 visits this week ... you may even be the 200th reader. Don't worry, there's no prizes to be awarded or annoying popups if you are.

If you blog, you might be interested in Google Analytics. It's a cool toy. As a result of using it, I can give you this annual report, and I think I'll have to make that a ritual moving forward.

Keith