[Webpub] Open source web analytics: piwik

[Lisa C. Mayer]

Open source web analytics: piwik
Posted: Mar 3, 2009
http://webpub.mit.edu/2009/03/open-source-web-analytics-piwik/

Here’s an interesting alternative to Google Analytics…has anyone tried  
piwik yet? Features include:

     * A customizable dashboard showing traffic, viewing patterns, and  
referrer details.
     * Ability to show traffic patterns over time (so you can see if  
there was uptake related to your releases) and how numbers are looking  
over the last year.
     * Embeddable widgets and APIs to provide access to your piwik data.

Here’s the high level messaging….

     Piwik is a downloadable, open source (GPL licensed) web analytics  
software program. It provides you with detailed reports on your  
website visitors: the search engines and keywords they used, the  
language they speak, your popular pages… and so much more.

     Piwik is a PHP MySQL software program that you download and  
install on your own webserver. At the end of the five minute  
installation process you will be given a JavaScript tag. Simply copy  
and paste this tag on websites you wish to track (or use an existing  
plugin to do it automatically for you).

Obviously it isn’t as powerful (yet) as Google Analytics, I like that  
you can customize the interface and that it has a Drupal plugin.  
However SourceForge thinks it’s stable enough to offer as a hosted  
solution.


Lisa C. Mayer : web & database consultant at MIT- IS&T- DCAD
lmayer at mit.edu  |  617.452.4225  |  (gtalk & aim) lisacmayer
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