Google Analytics Part 3 - Trigger Points

In a prior post we shared maps indicating the locations from where people read the Schnitzelbahn blog.  Hello world!

In this last part about Google Analytics we'll share what this tool tells us about how people found Schnitzelbahn, and what they're looking at.  (Commercial sites must analyze this data endlessly!)

Traffic tools tend to identify three general sources of traffic.  "Direct" means that the web surfer typed the URL directly into his/her browser.  "Referring" or "Referred" means that they followed a link to Schnitzelbahn from another site.  Finally, "Search Engines" indicate a pass-through from Google, Bing, etc.  Here is our breakdown to date:

At the beginning, most traffic was Direct -- friends and family knew about our little project and simply typed www.schnitzelbahn.com.  Then we started using Facebook statuses (nope, statii is not the plural of 'status', FYI) to let friends know new pages were available, so Referrals increased.  Now, we're continuing to see increase in Referrals (from other web sites outside Facebook) but also an increase in Search Engine-generated traffic.

As with the visitor maps, you can deep-dive to see more information.  For example (see below), Facebook Referrals have a lower Bounce Rate (bounce: reads one page and then leaves) and stay longer.  No surprise here -- what nice friends we have!  People typing the URL directly bounce more and leave more quickly... perhaps because they visit more often and have already seen the older posts?

Referrals from another expat-in-Germany blog (amiexpat.com) are great.  These visitors don't bounce and stay a while.  Thanks Christina!  (Makes sense - both sites talk about life as an American in Germany, so a reader of one probably has some interest in the other.)  There are other insights here as well.

In the referrals, there are tons of Google sites in the list above:  USA, Germany, UK, Bulgaria, Hungary, Czech, Italy, Sweden, India... but what exactly did everyone type into Google to find Schnitzelbahn?  Here's a snapshot of the last couple months.

I highlighted the searches that included "schnitzelbahn".  They're positive, because people are searching for us semi-directly... but they're also not as "organic" as a blind search (blind = they found us purely because of Google says we have valuable content about a specific topic).  Again using the visit data, we can infer a few things.  First, people liked (or at least spent time on) the English Garden and Schlager posts.  They spent more time on site, and these posts inspired them to look at other pages too (low Bounce Rate).

It was neat to see that Google is sending us new visitors on completely organic searches to -- for example, the ones outlined in blue, from "street painting" to "german pranks".  The hits often resulted in 1-and-done visits, but we're not an encyclopedia on these topics by design so that's OK.

Of course Google searches themselves (like Facebook data) are both a source of academic research and cultural indicators.  Google has a hot trends page showing the currently most popular searches.  Google also created a zeitgeist page (zeitgeist is German, meaning "spirit of the times"), showing "how the world searched" in 2010.

For me, the Google searches give insight into how people perceive Germany, and what their personal interests are here.  For example:

"texas like bavaria"                                                      (discussed in our post here)
"deutschland yodeling"                                                (German stereotype)
"German sense of humor"                                            (another stereotype, discussed in our post here)
"where to get a decent hamburger in Munich"      (questions like this are common... need to be a future post obviously)
"German facial hair"                                                     (yet another stereotype, but partially true per our post here)
"weissbier pope"                                                              (you'd be surprised, the Pope and beer are linked!)
"wearing Uggs in Germany"                                      (What the heck???)

There are some, ummmm, other searches that Google connects somehow to Schnitzelbahn.  Not sure if I should say "sorry Mom" in advance, or hope she just doesn't read this far:

"naked on Sylt"                  (nude sunbathing is common here, and Sylt is a popular island)
"bahn bunnies"                  (oh my!)
"wiese nude sunbathing"   (nude sunbathing is also common in Munich's English Garden)
"xxl german frau"               (oh my, oh my!!)

Back to more professional themes -  I went through all searches in the last couple weeks and grouped some by topic.  (Google Analytics can't to this.)  It was interesting to see the terms that showed up most frequently:

25 - Munich hiking day trips
17 - photography, Olympus, dramatic tone art filter
14 - alter ego names
12 - Franziskaner, naturtrub
11 - compact camera
10 - chocolate, easter, kinder chocolate
  9 - nutella
  8 - asparagus, spargel
  7 - David Hasselhoff
  6 - gummi bears
  5 - german beards
  4 - beer (this used to be one of the top search topcs... we need to post more about beer again!)

I like to look at these at a higher, more aggregate level:

49 - food
28 - photography
25 - travel
12 - German culture

These are the general themes that Google is matching to Schnitzelbahn, and basically how the blog/site header describes our hobby's intent.  Everything is right with the world!

In fact, Google is also ranking our photographs higher too.  At least in my search results, this Porsche photo is #25 for "dramatic tone art filter", this creation of Frau A is #4 for "gummi art", this Marienplatz photo is #2 for "Munich figures", and bizzarely our map here is #1 for "Kufstein sledding".  (Readers:  out of curiousity... what do your search results return?)

Lastly, Google Analytics can show Entry/Exit pages for visits.  This is interesting because it identifies where people started, and to where they eventually exited on the blog.  For example (below), of the most recent visits to the "How to Build an Igloo" post, a number of visitors then looked at the Time Lapse Photography post before leaving the site.  I can't explain this - not sure what they have in common!  But interesting, no?

We can see how large, commercial (revenue-generating) web sites rely on tools like Google Analytics to improve "performance".  For us, it was simply interesting to see what is out there and learn about it.  Hope you found it interesting too.

Google Analytics Part 2 - Where in the World?

In the first post on Google Analytics for Schnitzelbahn we looked at data and charts about pages per visit (and Bounce Rate), duration per visit, plus technical information about visitors' computers.

But it's much more fun to see the locations from which people are visiting us!

Coming from the Dashboard you can go to a world map showing visits by country.  You can change the view (boxed in the lower left) to sub-continent/region or even just continent.  (The "dimension" list on the bottom right lets you filter the map.  For example, you could show only visits of people using Macintish computers, or those who stayed longer than 5 minutes.).  92 countries - fascinating!

The map has a little bit of interaction to it -- if you hold the mouse over a country, it flashes the visitor count (within the timeframe you have selected).  I pasted a few over the graphic.  Nothing from Greenland in this view, but a couple from Ecuador & Pakistan, plus solo visitors from Uganda and Mongolia.  Thanks!  (or, better yet, "weebale" and "bayarlalaa")

A pie chart format gives a better indication of what nationalities are reading Schnitzelbahn.  Germany is #1 and together with the U.S. accounts for over 3/4ths of the visits.  Not surprising.  I found Brazil (#6) and India (#10) interesting though.  (Note:  the good-sized gray area is "unknown" location - some users block this info.)

It gets more fascinating when you dig deeper and look at Pages per Visit and Average Time on Site for the countries' visits.  Think there might be a cultural difference between U.S./U.K. and the European Continent?  Check out the Average Time on Site.  Perhaps it has also to due with native English viewers vs. those with English as a secondary language (reading a bit slower, like us reading German).  But some of that gap has to be due to faster/slower lifestyles, right?  Further down the list, it appears that our friends in Turkey, the Philippines, and Denmark actually hang out and read the posts - thanks!  (2+ minutes per visit)

Further down the list (not seen above) are some intersting findings.  The dozens of Hong Kong visitors have looked at over 4 pages per visit on average.  (Most of the 92 countries measure 1.5 or less)  Dozens more readers from Iceland, Algeria, and Syria read more than 2 pages per visit.  Plus, we've had a grand total of 1 visitor from Panama but he/she looked at 16 different posts!

Going back to the global map, let's change to a city view.  Europe and the U.S. are very crowded, but this perspective points to some interesting cities in South America (Santiago-Chile, Pelotas-Brazil), the Middle East (Beirut-Lebanon, Tel Aviv-Israel), Eastern Europe (Tbilisi-Georgia, Kiev-Ukraine), and Asia (Shibuya-Japan, Cebu-Philippines).  I've been only to Tel Aviv, but would love to visit all of them and post some photos "on site"!

If we "click" on the U.S., it can also show a gradient map by state...

... but in Europe it goes right to the city view.  Here is Germany (I overlayed some of the major cities, if it wasn't obvious):

Once again, we can drive down to a list of cities ordered by number of visits (either globally, or within a specific country).  This is the global view below.   Munich sits #1, with German cities taking the top 4 spots (cool!).  A couple of cities appeared surprising at first, but after investigation showed that they are the U.S. locations, not the originals!

It's just enjoyable to see random visitors from all over the world.  Beer and lederhosen lovers are everywhere!  Thanks for stopping by...

We have one more post coming on Google Analytics, that will look at how you (the viewers) got here, and what you looked at.

Google Analytics Part 1 - Visits and Visitors

The first post on Schnitzelbahn was published about 10 months ago, and after 280 blog entries (so far) we've been keen to learn more about the visitors and traffic here (and about the tools that "real" webmasters use to give them such info).

In other words:  enough about us, let's talk about YOU.

We use Squarespace, which provides the blogging software and site hosting.  Squarespace does collect some traffic information, but we wanted to check out tools that major sites would use.  Specifically, this post is about Google Analytics.  Please note:  Schnitzelbahn has no advertisements and does not generate any revenue -- this is just a hobby... an exercise in learning for us.  We're not spying on you!

Here is our home page for Google Analytics, showing the dashboard for Schnitzelbahn - some figures are scrubbed, but the gist is there.  The top section is a line chart showing number of visits by day.  You can change this to cover any time period you want (boxed in the upper right).  Underneath are sections that allow deep dives into the data.

In the screen capture above I've outlined a few areas that we'll "click on" to see details.  The first area is called "Site Usage" and has a few key statistics:  Pages per Visit, Average Time on Site, Bounce Rate, and % New Visits.

Here is what Pages per Visit looks like (below).  Obviously, you want visitors to look at more than one page when they stop by - it means your content is interesting to them.  One quarter of our readers view 2-4 pages per visit - not too bad?  (we have no reference)

Next is Duration of Visit.  Again, it's common sense that the longer the better.  You can't see it here, but most of the 0-10 second visits are the result of a detailed Google search -- I guess that the surfers here were looking for something specific and determined quickly that we didn't have the info he/she was looking for (e.g., product specifications, specific tourist info, etc.).  Overall, 13% of visitors stay 2 minutes or longer. 

Things get more interesting when you look at duration of visit by day -- and map this to the specific content.  You can see which posts kept people reading... obviously lots of people stuck around to view the Eurovision videos on May 10!  (It's a little tricky because of the time difference for readers -- late surfers in the U.S. might view content "the next day" here in Germany... but overall you get the picture.)

Bounce Rate was new to me - it's just the percentage of people that view one page and then leave (see the pageviews table above).  Again, viewing this data by day shows you what content got the viewer to read additional pages.  If we're honest, though, we also have to admit that day-of-the-week has a lot to do with surfing behavior.  See how low the Bounce Rate is on Sunday and Monday?  (Sunday - just feel like relaxed surfing & reading.... Monday - will do anything as a diversion from work!)

Let's go back to the Dashboard and "click" on Visitors Overview, to get pretty specific data on the computer(s) you're using to read Schnitzelbahn.  For example, Google Analytics will show the distribution of browers used.  Firefox beats IE by a whisker.

If we "click" on Firefox, it will even show us a distribution of the Firefox versions used!  (There are similar charts for versions of Flash player.)

We also can see operating systems of the viewers' computers (love the 1.5% Linux!)...

... and even the screen resolution of your monitors.

The most surprising, to me, was that Google Analytics "knows" what Internet/network service provider was used to connect.  I love that fact that visitors from Siemens have such long Average Time on Site -- glad to give you a distraction guys!  The folks using Sonic are in and out in a flash (less than 13 seconds) and don't stick around (91% Bounce Rate).  Wonder why?

No, we can't steal your credit card info, and haven't planted hidden video cameras in your house.  It was just interesting for us to get a glimpse of a tool and some data/charts that "real" web sites night use.  (Google Analytics is free.)

You can see how information about the user's computer (OS, browser, screen resolution, etc.) would be helpful in making decisions about how to design a site.  We keep things pretty simple so it's not as valuable to us, but there's probably a lot more that goes on in commercial Web site planning than most people realize.

In the second part coming next week we'll look at where you, the viewers, are located throughout the world.

German Vending Machines

One of the more positive stereotypes out there about Germany relates to efficiency and automation.  Germany is known for engineering machines and gadgets to solve problems you didn't know you had.

You can see some of this in the wide variety of vending machines here (called an "Automat" here). While some of these now can be found worldwide, Germany (and Japan, too, of course) has been automating sales and billpaying for decades - long before it was popular to sell anything other than coffee out of a vending machine!

Perhaps this is also a partial answer to the early and Sunday closing hours? You will be surprised what you can find in a vending machine here!

First Aid Automats:

First we have the First Aid Vending Machines, which you'll find around Munich in several subway stations. We don't quite understand the Obama-looking cartoon doc, but it is useful to be able to buy headache medicine, tissues, or bandaids while out and about.

First Aid vending machine in Isartor station

Here, a closeup of the contents...water, juice, cough supressant, gum, first aid products, etc. We're not really sure what the red "Alkohol Test" is - if it's rubbing alcohol wipes or a breathalyzer. 

You can actually find the Swiss-made Alkomat in the toilet areas of some bars.  It is a breathalyzer type vending machine. Though, I have to wonder how often this more challenges drunk people to see how high they can blow rather than people checking to see whether or not they can drive...

   s

Speaking of drinking and vending machines, the First Aid Automat (same brand and logo) in the Karlsplatz station has an interesting selection. To me, this looks more like a hangover cure machine rather than a first aid one. It's all water, tomato juice, tissues, breath mints, and gum. Not really going to cure much other than bad breath, dehydration, or hangovers, but still it's there.  

   

McDonalds EasyOrder automats:    

Even McDonald's is getting on the automat bandwagon, with its new EasyOrder kiosks. McDonald's can get quite busy at peak hours. This new system lets you place the order AND PAY at the kiosk, then pick up in the Easyorder line. Quite smart!

FotoStation:  

The photo booths aren't exactly unique, but the quality and number of them here are impressing. There are photobooths (usually at least 2) in every subway station. And they're preset to give you the accurate size for a variety of different bureaucratic needs. And in Germany, you're going to have bureaucratic needs.... They will also reject your application for having the wrong size photo, having too big of a smile, and other issues of non-conformity. As usual, there is a logic behind these frustration - Germany adopted biometric technologies long before anyone else, so the pictures must be in the correct size and proportions.

  

Art/Design Automat: 

This vending machine in the Hauptbahnhof (Main Train Station) is unique. It sells limited edition, one-of-a-kind, or hand-made art and design products. Stationery, porcelain, shirts, earrings, and other trinkets. It seems that artists can rent a slot to sell goods through the UnikatAutomat, with the Automat taking a commission on the sold goods.

You can see some of the products available on their online shop.

Right now there is only one of these, but they are planning to expand. I have not idea if this will really work or not, but it's an interesting idea.

Überweisungsautomat: 

The one below is rather interesting and more uniquely German - the Überweisungsautomat (the "bank transfer automat"). Basically it is an ATM for paying bills and making transfers. In Germany, there really aren't checks.  Companies will have them, but private individuals rarely do. Virtually all bills, then, must be paid by bank transfer.  You can set up a recurring transfer, fill out an authorization and mail it in, transfer online, or use one of these machines.

What's unique, however, is that it will automatically scan the form. You'll see the small box on the right above the keyboard, marked "Transfer Form." Every bill comes with a preprinted form that contains the recipient's bank info, your invoice number and amount, and your customer number. It's an orange and red form that looks just like the version on the screen below. You enter your bank account number, sign it, and stick it in the "Transfer Form" scanner. It scans it in and pays the bill for you. If you are transfering funds for other reasons, or you lost your form, you can also use the keyboard to type in the data yourself.

Virtually all bills here are paid by transfer - efficiently and without having to mail anything - and most bank accounts include some number of free transfers per month.  

What's fascinating to me is how long these have been around. There are some bill-pay kiosks in the US now, but these machines have been around at least a couple of decades. Herr J remembers them (looking exactly the same) from his study abroad here circa 1993!

   

CigarettenAutomat:  

And we couldn't discuss German vending machines without mentioning the beloved and controversial cigarette vending machines.  These have been around for a long, long time. They used to be controversial because anyone could buy cigarettes and tourists always found it a bit odd to have cigarette machines on the street corners.  They're controversial today because they're a bit complicated to use and don't always work, causing smokers much annoyance.

I assume they take cash (but I'm not sure), but they do take EC cards (the standard debit card here).

However, you additionally need to scan your German drivers license or ID card to verify your age. I'm guessing that does make it a bit difficult for any foreigners who don't have the required documents. We also noticed how high the slot is for the debit card - it's close to 6 feet off the ground. I guess that's a clever low-tech way of discouraging children from buying - the old "if you're tall enough to put your money on the bar" test.

MediaMarkt toGO: 

 And finally we have MediaMarkt toGO. MediaMarket basically is the German version of BestBuy. I know vending machines selling iPods are not exactly new, but this is unusual for Germany. And has quite a variety as you can see in the smaller pictures below - it sells everything from video game DVDs to hair dryers to Garmin navigation.

(Also, it's always good to know where you can buy things like batteries, chargers, adapters, and SD cards on holidays and Sundays!)

Not surprisingly, this is in the subway station to the Hauptbahnhof, being a good stop for forgotten gadgets, chargers, headphones or whatever else you need for your trip.

Touchscreen Guides at Munich Airport

The Munich Airport is undergoing some small upgrades, and taking use of impressive technology.

Now they have touchscreen kiosks throughout the airport. You can touch a flight to find out the status, or you can use it to search for food, drink, and services throughout the airport. Even better, there's an interactive map that will walk you there.

We find our flight info, search for the Paulaner biergarten, and then get directions to the rental car pickup.

Crazy Keys at the Technical Museum in Vienna

On a recent weekend trip to Vienna, Frau A and I spent a morning at the Technical Museum of Vienna.  The exhibit that I really wanted to see was on musical instruments.  This collection alone was worth the trip east from Munich.

The items represent a great combination of music and technology.  For example, the "piano maker's workshop" has instruments along the evolutionary tree of the modern piano including harpsichords, spinets, clavichords, a tangent piano, and finally the earliest forte pianos.  Even better, they have working, "cutaway" examples of the key mechanisms for about 8 different instruments, so you can see into the guts of how the sounds are actualized -- here's one example of a modern piano:

Most interesting to me were the esoteric instruments that pushed the envelope (in their time) for the type of sounds created, the method of playing and level of musical control, or even automation of the instrument(s).  I took photos of my favorites and will briefly describe them here.

Pictured below is the Janko keyboard.  Theoretically, the Jankó keyboard had a number of advantages with regard to playing technique: the same finger set for all keys, a natural hand position (the thumb always lies lower than the rest of the fingers), a broader range than a normal keyboard, as well as Glissando possibilities in all scales!  As in the chromatic keyboard, the semitones are distributed in equal sequence on a double (paired) row.

For playing-related reasons, three of these double (paired) rows are arranged with one on top of the other like a terrace. Each key thus has three points of touch. In order to facilitate orientation the familiar black and white coloring was kept.  In vented in 1882, the model below was created in 1885!  Of course, it never really caught on.

The creators did try hard for acceptance, though, even developing an instrument with both standard and Janko keyboards!

Another neat model on display had effectively the first pitch-bend for an electronic instrument.  A French music teacher and "amateur radio enthusiast" designed the "Ondes Musicales" after meeting Lew S. Termen (yes, the creator of the Theremin!).  To bend a pitch, the player slides the the metal ring along the draw string on the front of the keyboard.  The instrument won the Grand Prix de l'Exposition Mondiale at the 1937 World Exhibition in Paris.  This particular model is a later version (the earliest versions had nothing but the draw string, but it was too hard to pinpoint specific frequencies so they keyboard was added) built in 1960, and production continued until the early 1980s.

Background:  simply stated, electronic (analog) instruments create sound with valves or transistors that make audible electrical oscillations.  Unfortunately, the basic oscillation is usually pretty boring.  In order to make the timbres more interesting allow playing creativity, instrument builders had to add transient controls (change the attack & decay profile of the output), filters (adds different kinds of complexity and distortion to the wave, introduces vibrato, etc.), and other mechanism to alter and shape the output.

The Akaphon was invented around 1963 by the director Institute for Electroacoustics at the Vienna Music School.  (Cool that they already created an institute for that topic.)  Helmut Gottwald manipulated attack and decay responses through the use of light bulbs and photo resistors!  It's like the first modular synth, but limited to transient controls. no filters yet.  Here is is below, built into an upright piano cabinet!

I joke a bit with my friends when I call the next example the "first workstation".  This monster was developed by the Hupfeld company and dubbed "The 8th Wonder of the World".  Released in 1907, in incorporates a piano and three violins -- and plays them "automatically".  Each violin had only one active string, and various bellows were used to control the bow and "fingers" (bellows = pneumatically actuated).   Like a player piano, punched/perforated paper rolls dictated the action.

Technologists continue their assault on the violin with the "Schlüsselfidel" or "Nyckelhar".  A keyed violin.  The strings are played by a bow as normal, but slides and tangents are used to change the oscillating length rather than the player's fingers.  Variations of this instrument have been around since the 1400s, and still in use today in Sweden.

Brass instruments too were targets for automation.  Below is a photo of mechanical trumpet.  Again, punched tape controls mechanisms that shorten/lengthen the effective instrument length to change the pitch.  From the mid 1900s.

Filed under the category "bigger is better" must be this organ - sorry, forgot to capture the details.

Finally, things would not be complete without homage to Bob Moog.  If you don't know who he is, check Amazon for tons of books about his life and creations.

There was so much more there:  a Hönig Synthesizer from 1965, an AKA 2000 from the 1970s, and a Trautonium which uses a resistance wire (pressed by the player) to change the pitch of the oscillator...a similar model was used to make noises in Hitchcock's "The Birds", and Hindemith composed a piece for it!!!

Well, that's as much as I "brought back" to Munich with me.  The exhibition is highly recommended if you visit Vienna.  Cheers.

Great Design Gifts

A few whimsical touches for the home, with clever design

The 8-armed Octopus Shower Caddy keeps all your shower needs out of the way, in a cute package.

 

via Gizmodiva, available here

The cast iron Wicked Witch of the West doorstop...too clever for words!

available from Neatoshop

For the modern furniture lover, these Oi seating cells - the pieces can be combined on a base to create endless combinations of unique seating. Also, environmentally friendly...they utilize recycled materials and a soy-based CFC-free recyclable foam, as well as ship with the pieces tightly packed into a cube to reduce packing materials.

     via ApartmentTherapy, available from Oi

And the amazing Bird Nest Bed, into which I want to dive with a book!

via w ooh ome, designed by Merav Eitan and Gaston Zahr as part of the Green Garden Exhibition, shown in April 2008 at the opening of O*GE Gallery

For your kitchen are these fun geometric trivets...use them as potholders, alone, or link them together. They come in great colors and kinda remind me of Settler of Catan. Yes, I know, sometimes I'm little weird...I can't help it

via Design*Sponge and available from Velocity