A lot of nerds have been talking about their growing distrust of Google — myself included. But complaining about Google and moving away from their services are two different things. Personally, I leave Safari logged out of my account, and really only use search and Reader. (For the latter, I use Reeder, but it’s still powered by Google’s backend.)
However, Google Analytics has remained a central part of my workflow, especially when it comes to the site. While it might not be the best-designed analytics solution in the market, is the most popular, and the one most people rely on for things like advertising contracts.
But earlier today, I turned off Google Analytics on this domain. If you think Google is creepy, why give the company inside-access to your site’s traffic information? Crawling for search is one thing, but knowing all my stats is another.
Now, I’m using Gaug.es to track hits and referrals for 512 Pixels.
The site offers live traffic information, easy-to-read graphs of traffic trends, a referral list and more. It has all of the basic features of Google’s product, without all the extra junk for ads in there.
There’s a WordPress plugin that makes adding the tracking info very simple — no need to dig around in header.php for WordPress users.
I do wish that the service had an RSS feed for referrals like Mint does.
The free iPhone app has all of the key features built-in. There isn’t an iPad app, but the site works just fine in Safari. (Speaking of the site, it’s great. It is easy to read and easy to use.)
Starting at just $6/month, Gaug.es is a great alternative to Google Analytics for the picky nerd.