Does anyone want to know where their viewers are viewing from?

Ham1

Yo hello everyone,

Have you heard of ClustrMaps? - a compact and very scalable geographical hit counter widget

We are interested in your feedback to see whether the multi-step copy/paste procedure below is worth automating? :dunno

A couple SmugMug users have implemented it (see bottoms of their pages);

http://johnnabrynn.smugmug.com/

http://niklens.smugmug.com/

4. The multi-step sequence (also summarised at
http://clustrmaps.wordpress.com/html-setup/clustrmaps-on-smugmug )

PHASE I (get the widget code): Sign up for the widget and get your HTML by going to http://www.clustrmaps.com and supplying your URL and email address

PHASE II (add it to SmugMug):
a) Log into your SmugMug account
b) Click on ‘control panel‘
c) Click on ‘customization settings‘
d) Scroll down to ‘footer’ where you will see a white box.
e) Paste the HTML code that you received in 'PHASE I' into that footer box
f) You can now save and view your page(s)
g) It takes 24 hours to 'kick in' (so a blank map will be show first - map updates occur daily)

Let me know if you likey?

Markham

Cuong

Very cool idea. I'd like to try it. The steps in Phase II don't seem that bad, but automation to make it even easier would be appreciated.

Cuong

Cuong

I have the standard account, and I don't see any white box in the Customize page in the Control Panel.

Cuong

Richard

Will this do something that Google Analytics (or Statcounter) doesn't?

Ham1

Richard wrote:

Will this do something that Google Analytics (or Statcounter) doesn't?

From the words of ClustrMaps on how they are different from StatCounter:

[SIZE=-1][FONT=Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif] Five big differences:
a) 'widget = visualization': most counters ask you to insert a special tracking 'image', typically a badge or a logo, that triggers the counting, but for ClustrMaps the tracking image is a 100% faithful rendition of the location of your visitors. In other words, the 'trigger' for the counter is also the visual counter itself - highly compact and highly accurate.

b) 'gestalt rather than stats': ClustrMaps is all about the 'visual image' - numbers are aviable too, but we empasize the quick overall visualization

c) 'scalability': many counters let you see the 'last N visitors' (say 500 or 1000) on a map, whereas ClustrMaps shows ALL visitors, using our proprietary clustering algorithm, that scales to millions, while maintaining speed (see next)

d) 'speed': instead of putting pushpins on a Google map, which renders very slowly when numbers exceed 1000, ClustrMaps pre-computes all images in advance... this is especially valuable for your large (full-page) world map, which is a pre-computed JPG image and is displayed immediately.

e) public 'bragging rights': some counters and maps require you to keep your information proprietary. ClustrMaps is all about showing off your visitor locations to your community[/FONT][/SIZE]

Ham1

Cuong wrote:

I have the standard account, and I don't see any white box in the Customize page in the Control Panel.

Cuong

Sorry, only the Power and Pro accounts have the "customize" boxes.

Time to upgrade!

Markham

digismile

Easy to do. Took me less than 5 minutes to setup.

pretty cool

chuckinsocal

Hi Gang,

At the risk appearing like a negative Nellie, I fail to see the value in this widget for several reasons.

1. As Richard implied, we can get this same info in near real time and on demand from Google Analytics or StatCounter.

2. I don't see where it's relevant to our visitor's experience. Do they really want to know? Do they really care? But, I may be missing something here though.

3. It's another piece of clutter on the page.

4. It's distracting the visitor from the real purpose of the site which is to view our photos and hopefully buy some.

5. It gives the visitor a reason to leave our site and explore the ClustrMaps site and maybe forget about us and not come back.

So, as the old Wendy's commercial went: "Where's the meat?

But this is all just me and others may feel differently. It's not for me but If others see the value, I say "Go for it."

Just my nickel's worth (Inflation you know).

clustrmaps

Hiya Chuck... Marc here from the ClustrMaps team... thought I'd beam in with a quick reply... generally speaking, it is of course a personal choice, and many widgets generally engender a kind of 'love/hate' relationship for some of the reasons you mention. HOWEVER we've taken particular care to be
a) very compact (so you don't actually HAVE to move off the page just to garner the info you need at glance
b) deliberately 'in situ', i.e. right there in place, so you don't have to move off to see your stats (which indeed Google Analystics and StatCounter provide in fantastic depth)
c) deliberately 'exposed' to share with the community... we have hundreds of thousands of users who clearly love this capability, and naturally for those who don't, they'll clearly share your view and vote with their feet..

If you look at those represenative SmugMug users mentioned at the beginning of this thread, you'll see that they like sharing the 'quick gestalt' of where there visitors are coming from: no clicks 'off-site' required!

OK... hope that's useful... we just wanted to test the waters here and give SmugMug users who fall into the 'love it' camp the opportunity to install it more simply.


Cheers

-Marc from ClustrMaps

clustrmaps

digismile wrote:

Easy to do. Took me less than 5 minutes to setup.

pretty cool

Heh, flattery will get you everywhere: we've just upgraded you to a ClustrMaps+ account (better zoomed-in maps, no ads); may take a day or so to 'kick in')...

cheers
-Marc

KED

Only at the isp address level. Anyone have that capability?

Allen

Add the target="_blank" so your visitors don't lose your site.

<div id="clustrMaps" align="center">
<a href="http://www4.clustrmaps.com/coun.... id="clustrMapsLink" target="_blank">
...

cornerketch

clustrmaps wrote:

Heh, flattery will get you everywhere: we've just upgraded you to a ClustrMaps+ account (better zoomed-in maps, no ads); may take a day or so to 'kick in')...

cheers
-Marc

Hey I love the maps too..

denisegoldberg

chuckinsocal wrote:

3. It's another piece of clutter on the page.

4. It's distracting the visitor from the real purpose of the site which is to view our photos and hopefully buy some.

It's interesting to be able to see the information, but I'm with Chuck here. I looked at the two sites linked in the initial post, and the map draws your eyes away from the photos, which is the prime purpose of our sites.

I honestly don't think that the visitors to my site care about where other visitors are. I prefer the behind the scenes information that tools like Google Analytics provide.

But - we're all different, and I'm sure there are people out there who like widgets. I just like clean.

--- Denise

Allen

denisegoldberg wrote:

It's interesting to be able to see the information, but I'm with Chuck here. I looked at the two sites linked in the initial post, and the map draws your eyes away from the photos, which is the prime purpose of our sites.

I honestly don't think that the visitors to my site care about where other visitors are. I prefer the behind the scenes information that tools like Google Analytics provide.

But - we're all different, and I'm sure there are people out there who like widgets. I just like clean.

--- Denise

I put it in the footer and the only time you notice it is when the page first
pops up. After that you have to scroll down to even know it's there. Just
an experiment now and will probably remove later.