Communique - From The Desk of Alan K'necht
In this issue:
- Alan K'necht's perspective on what's happening in the Canadian IT sector
- What's Happening at K'nechtology
- Release of Dr. Jack Birnbaum's Stress & Anger Management Classes (program) web site
- Stopping SPAM
- Ads on our Newsletter
- Forays into Search Engine Optimization - Software Review - A comparison of WebTrends & FastStats - Web Stats Software
The Second half of 2003
It appears that the Canadian technology sector has truly turned the corner and is now back on the road to prosperity. Signs of this are everywhere with fortune 500 companies once again purchasing new equipment, software upgrades and expanding IT services. Even mid-sized companies have started spending, as they couldn't hold off any longer. This doesn't mean that there is a new IT boom, but the signs are there and it looks like it should continue into 2004. I personally think companies have seen the bargains that hardware, software and consulting companies are offering and it has simply made the ROI too good to say no to.
What's Happening at K'nechtology?
Since the last newsletter, we released a web site for Dr. Jack Birnbaum. The site outlines his program for Stress and Anger Management classes & Cognitive Retraining. While a small and simple site, it is an effective tool for extending Dr. Birnbaum's marketing reach and the site's code is written in valid HTML 4.01 (validates on the World Web Consortium's validator). The use of valid code ensures the greatest possible cross browser and devise compatibility.
K'nechtology has taken a stand against SPAM. We all get it our inbox and have to deal with it on a daily basis. Ever wonder how those SPAMMERs get your e-mail address or how you can prevent them from getting it? Read the following articles on stopping SPAM by Alan K'necht.
K'nechtology now has a web page devoted to providing you with solutions to preventing SPAMMERS from harvesting your e-mail address. Be sure to visit http://www.knechtology.com/stop-spam for the latest news and techniques on this hot topic.
If you're new to this newsletter or haven't visited the newsletter archive recently you may notice that we now have ads on the newsletter. Revenues derived from these ads go directly to subsidizing the cost of the newsletter. This feature helps us keep the newsletter free.
Here at K'nechtology we've diversified a little. While we are still offering the same consulting services, we decided to highlight a service that has always been part of our regular web design and management services. We are now marketing a separate service entitled Search Engine Optimization (SEO). When a web site has gone under our SEO process, we help the site get better rankings in major search engines for key words and phrases. Many of our existing clients have engaged us to improve their rankings and we've shown dramatic results.
We've just applied our methodology to a new client's ("Allan Windows) web site. They went from having no pages of their web site appearing in any search engines to number 1 for one of their primary search phrases and number 2 for another in Google (Google is the most popular search engine).
I've recently published two recent columns on this subject matter:
- Adding Value through Search Engine Optimization - Digital Web - where I show the importance of thinking about search engines when building a web site
- It pays to think like a marketer - Computer World Canada - in this column, I look at the importance of putting on your marketing cap when managing a web site at the code level
Software Reviews
WebTrends 4.01 vs. FastStats Analyzer Gold 3
vs.
Since the dawn of web sites, people wanted to know about (their web stats) the effectiveness of their websites. Initially all they were concerned with was the number of hits and a number of programs emerged in the market place to capture this information. Well the World Wide Web has matured and so have reporting requirements on web site traffic and the tools used to harvest this information. To meet this challenge the new field of Web Analytics (the analysis of web site traffic) has emerged.
One of the most popular software packages on the market today is WebTrends by NetIQ. NetIQ offers several different flavours of WebTrends. For this review we pitted their entry level WebTrends Log Analyzer version 8.1 against a smaller competitor (Mach 5) FastStats. WebTrends is generally considered an industry staple and workhorse. FastStats bills itself as the fastest analyzer on the market. So we decided to see how they stack up against each other.
| Feature ratings out of 5 | WebTrends | FastStats |
|---|---|---|
| Cost | $499.00 US | $199.95 US |
| Within Version Update cost | $89.00 US | Free |
| Ease of Installation | 4.0 | 4.5 |
| Ease of Use | 3.5 | 4.5 |
| Report Flexibility | 4.5 | 3.5 |
| Speed of initial report generation | 1.5 | 5.0 |
| Speed of report refinement | 4.0 | 2.0 |
| Appearance of printed Reports | 4.5 | 3.5 |
| Ability to save reports in various formats | 4.5 | 3.5 |
| Remote Access | 4.5 | NA |
| Value for the money | 4.0 | 4.0 |
The review process:
First we downloaded and installed the software on the same computer. Then we used both utilities to parse the identical access log representing several months of web site activity for our company web site. We timed the length of time it took each to generate the first report which encompassed the entire log. We then had each product generate separate reports for a specific month, week and day.
The results
FastStats is a much smaller product. The download of this utility (on a high-speed connections) took a little over a minute, while WebTrends required us to download several components (granted these were optional components) each taking between 5 and 10 minutes to download. The installation process was about the same with both products providing an easy to use installation wizard. FastStats installed in seconds while WebTrends took a little over 15 minutes including the optional components.
When it came to parsing the access log for the first time, FastStats completed the process in less than 10 minutes while WebTrends took over two-hours. FastStats lived up to its billing as the fastest analyzer. We had never seen anything like it.
However, the next challenge of narrowing down our report timeframe required a configuration of a new profile and filter (we needed to define the timeframe) in FastStats and the rerunning of the entire report (about the same 10 minutes including filter configuration). This is where the slowness of WebTrends paid-off. While it was parsing the log the first time, WebTrends was storing the results in a database, so all we needed to do was use WebTrend's web interface and select our time frame and wait a few seconds (in total about 30 seconds) to get the refined results.
When it came to report generation, FastStats couldn't compete with WebTrends. WebTrends seamlessly exported its results to MSWord, Excel and PDF Formats without a problem (on our test machine). FastStats was only able to export to Excel. While FastStats has an option to export to MS Word, it only supports this export to older versions of MS Word that we didn't have installed on our computer.
Other Issues
One feature that WebTrends comes with is the ability to access it from anywhere. When it is installed, WebTrends essentially installs a web server. You access through your web browser. This gives you the ability to share access to WebTrends with other people in your organization. WebTrends also gives you the ability to schedule when you want it to reindex your web logs. This is an activity you may want to schedule for the middle of the night so you can have your stats ready to be analyzed when you're ready. WebTrends comes with other advanced analysis features while useful, are not usually required by small business web sites and are more appropriate for larger ecommerce sites.
Because of the database and web server components of WebTrends, it requires a minimum of 1 gig of RAM to run effectively and the parsing of web logs virtually shuts out all other processes on the computer. FastStats on the other hand works well with 256 Meg of RAM and leaves room for you do other things on your computer while it's running.
When it came to periodic upgrades, these were included in the price for FastStats (upgrades within version), however WebTrends requires the purchase of its "Essential Services" package at $89 USD. So the overall cost of WebTrends was $588 USD while FastStats came in at the economical price of $199.95 USD. For those on a budget, you may want to purchase FastStats Analyzer Regular edition ($99.95 USD) which is just as fast as Analyzer Gold but comes with fewer reports types.
This was a close race between the two products with both products having very different strong and weak points. We liked both equally well, but thought some of the extra features in WebTrends were worth its slowness. If you're in the market to purchase a tool for analyzing your web logs, you need to ask yourself two specific questions before deciding which one to purchase. First, do I regularly rerun my reports (run every day and then a weekly summary) or do I just periodically need to see the overall results? Secondly, do I need to share these reports with others in the office and/or clients or are the reports just for me? If you answered yes to the second part of both questions, then FastStats is for you, if you answered yes to the first part of both questions, then WebTrends is your product. If you fell somewhere in the middle, then you'll need to weigh all the factors to see what's truly important to you before deciding. The good news is that both products offer free 30-day trials of their software. Whichever you choose, both are excellent value for the money you'll just need to decide for yourself if you need the added features of WebTrends or not.
On an aside, Mach 5 is offering anyone who purchases their product after reading this review a 10% discount. Simply enter the term "knechtology" in the promotion codes box on the order form.
Currently Under Review
We are currently evaluating Adobe Acrobat Standard & Professional Version 6.0. We so far like both versions and are just in the process of writing our review. Look for it in our next issue.
Closing Thoughts
For more information on any of the topics or products referenced, please feel free to contact K'nechtology Inc. directly. Just to remind you that my services and the services of K'nechtology Inc. are always available to help you with your technology strategies, search engine optimization, IT project management, Internet/web development needs and software reviews. Subscribe to future newsletters or find links to previous newsletters, columns and product reviews at news.knechtology.com
