Google Analytics

Being a geography geek means that I have an almost obsessive fascination with different countries, cultures, and locations around the world. It also means that I love maps. I love looking at maps. I love Google Maps. I love Google Earth. I love Google Street View. I also love checking up on my Google Analytics to see where my blog's visitors are coming from.

For those unaware, Google Analytics is a free tracking tool that you can embed in your site to track who's visiting your site. You can see what city or country they're from, how long they're staying on your site, what pages they're reading and for how long, what web browser they're using, their screen resolution, ISP, OS, etc. You can even see what search engine they used and what keywords they entered to get to your site.

Speaking of which, some of the more entertaining keywords that people have plugged in to get to my blog:

"25 cent peep shows granville vancouver are they real?"
"awesome inukshuks"
"バンクーバー 花火 グランビル" (I have no idea what this says)*
"дождь в ванкувере" (ditto)**
"can't stand the weather in vancouver"
"im sick of vancouvers weather"

Plus about a hundred variations of "what's the weather REALLY like in Vancouver?"

I guess I really do write a lot about weather on my blog. Ooops! Maybe that'll be my 2010 resolution: focus less on weather.

Anyhow...

One of the most fascinating parts about having Google Analytics on my blog is seeing where all my visitors come from. In the year since my blog has been running until this date, I have had visitors from 99 different countries. That's incredible! That's really, really cool! Check out the map! Each country filled in with green means that I've had at least one visitor from that country. The darker the green, the more visitors I've had.

FYI, the top 10 countries are:

1. Canada
2. United States
3. Philippines
4. United Kingdom
5. Italy
6. Australia
7. Germany
8. Malaysia
9. India
10. Indonesia

But people have visited my blog from as far away as Bangladesh, Serbia, Belgium, Jordan, Poland, Sri Lanka, the Falkland Islands, Kazakhstan, Iran, Lebanon, Iraq, Zimbabwe, Nigeria, Ghana, Austria, Yemen, Singapore, Colombia, Israel, Greece, Egypt, Mauritius, El Salvador, Tunisia, Mexico, Macau, Peru, Sweden, Japan, Brazil, Portugal, Jamaica, and even Brunei!

And that's just a small sampling!

But if the world has 195 countries, that means that I still don't have visitors for 50.7% of the world's other countries. Come on people from Mongolia, Iceland, or Belarus! Where are you? Where are you Paraguay, Fiji, or Greenland? I don't see you Congo! Lesotho? Swaziland? Zambia? You're severely lacking representation. Same goes for you, Honduras and Nicaragua! And don't think I don't notice, Belize! That goes for you too Burma and Afghanistan. Don't hide from me Turkmenistan - I know you're out there. And while I'm at it, where are all my Cameroon bloggers? Or the Guinea and Equatorial Guinea bloggers? I mean, seriously! Where's the love?

Edit: An online translation of the Japanese writing brought up "the Vancouver fireworks Glan building". The Russian online translation is "rain in Vancouver". Ha!