[thelist] RE:Analog User Session Tracking

[Martin]

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Eveline Vanhemel wrote on 23/6/01 6:43 pm

>Martin Wrote:
>
>"What many App servers (SiteServer, CF, Broadvision, ATG etc) do is to use
>session cookies to track both unique visitors, and visitor paths through
>the
>site. Note that analysing visitor paths is a nightmare to do if you want
>any
>kind of useful information at the end of it, but it's a nice concept."
>
>This is true but it requires the client to have cookies enabled, so I don't
>vote for that either....

Is that as a user, or as someone who runs a site?

If as a user, do you have a problem with it on almost every site above
the Geocities level you visit? Pretty much every site with a login
feature uses cookies to maintain state (the evolt site does).

If as someone who runs a site and you're worried about users who
don't have cookies on, sure, it's not perfect. Nothing is - there is
magic bullet.

Accept the limitations of that, and recognise that you'll still have
more data with higher reliability than IP tracking.

Cheers
Martin 

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_______________________________________________
email: martin at easyweb.co.uk             PGP ID: 0xA835CCCB
       martin at members.evolt.org      snailmail: 30 Shandon Place
  tel: +44 (0)774 063 9985                      Edinburgh,
  url: http://www.easyweb.co.uk                 Scotland