I have used Google Analytics ever since I registered my first website and haven’t had any complaints so far. It does what it does ti my satisfaction and answers most questions about my site visitors plus some more. I haven’t had the need or urge to look for an alternate web analytics offering so far.

I recently came across an interesting alternative, Woopra that seemed worth looking at. One of the main features of Woopra that attracted me was live visitor tracking. Let’s look at some of the other features Woopra offers:

Woopra Features

• Woopra offers web analytics and site statistics that is updated at least once a day with several stats getting updated multiple times a day.
• It offers Live Tracking of visitors so you have more immediate information.
• Woopra can be installed on WordPress, vBulletin forums as a plugin and is also supported by manual installation on other major blog/CMS platforms. (more info)
• It comes with a cool multi-platform client software that is available for Windows, Mac & Linux.
• With the real time information on search trends, traffic spikes, user queries, generating content or taking action becomes immediate based on user actions.
• You can search your data by specific data points to get a deeper understanding of visitors that matter to your site.
• Embed a click to chat button in your site to let your visitors chat with the webmaster.
• If you run WordPress, vBulletin, MediaWiki, etc it allows tracking registered users.
• Custom notification based on your set events like certain user’s visit, or users from certain country, browser, etc or an event like an ad click or sales, etc.
• Woopra is designed to be a platform rather than a solution and can be extended with plugins and skins through their API.
• It has a thriving forum for any questions or issues you may have with the product.

Woopra is free during beta and allows tracking one site. When the paid service becomes available, Woopra says there will still be a free service.

I have registered ShanKri-la to test out this beta service and will share my impressions on it after some time and see if I can compare it to Google Analytics. I am waiting for site approval at the moment to start using Woopra and excited that the client is supported for my Linux desktop as well.

Linux Installation Tip

If you are trying to install Woopra in your Linux desktop like Ubuntu or openSUSE, make sure you have JRE 1.6 installed.

Also, if you get an error when installing with sh woopra_unix.sh command,

gzip: sfx_archive.tar.gz: not in gzip format

Try downloading the file with this from the linux command line,

w get http://static.woopra.com/woopra_unix.sh?anti-cache=12398794379

Then rename the file to woopra_unix.sh before executing it to install the client. ( ‘w get’ is just one word  without the space but WordPress won’t let me save the post spelt right)

A contact of mine on Twitter said he’s been waiting for 2 weeks for approval so I’m not sure how soon mine will be approved. As soon as it does, I will post a followup with more first hand information on this service.

Hello newcomer, did I say welcome to ShanKri-la yet? Before you move on, just wanted to thank you for visiting and we hope you come back and see us again!

We had a nice relaxing weekend this week and I am just sitting down to sharing some good finds I bookmarked this week.

• 7 Interesting and Useful Things to do with your USB Pen Drive - Shankar Ganesh of Killer Tech Tips
  Have a usb flash drive in your keychain? Check out this post from Shankar for more ideas on how to use it.
• How US tax system works - ProBargainHunter
  A very funny way of looking at US tax system.
• Reformatting WordPress - Weblog Tools Collection
  If you have a self-hosted WordPress blog and considered the possibility of reformatting WordPress, check out this post for the pros and cons.
  
• Easy Ways to Improve Your Vision - Readers Digest
  I wear glasses and spending 10+ hours in front of a computer everyday, this was very useful tome. [via Lifehacker]
• How to Herd Organic Search Traffic to Your Blog - ProBlogger
  I am recently seeing a little surge in search engine traffic lately but this post has given me a lot more ideas to try and improve it.
• 3 Free & Easy To Use Screencast Recording Tools - My post at Techie-Buzz
  If you’ve tried troubleshooting or try explaining a computer task over the phone, you’ll be really grateful for screencasts.

Hope you enjoyed this week’s round up and will see you soon with more fun posts.

Sorry I went missing for a couple of days. I really should consider writing some posts ahead of time for days such as this but it feels like going to the dentist. I just love to write at the spur of the moment.

Top Commentators Edition

I decided to see what’s being written by our top commentators this month and found some real gems in there.

• Streaming Video over the Internet/LAN - Rakshit Khare
  Rakshit shows you how to stream video from your computer via Internet/LAN. I can see some folks finding this useful.
• AdGridwork Has Opened Their Blog For Business - Troy of Free Website Project
  I have used the free advertising network AdGridwork before and didn’t have much luck with it. It looks like they have undergone some nice changes and you can read all about it from Troy’s post.
• Best of: Firefox Greasemonkey Scripts - Kyle of SlickMania
  Need I say more? I love Greasemonkey scripts and this post is heaven for me. One of the most comprehensive collection of best Firefox Greasemonkey scripts around. Great work Kyle!
  
• SponsoredReviews Brightens Up The Place - Mark of MeAndMyDrum
  I just recently got my first SponsoredReviews offer but after the Google PR slap I am not sure if it’s a good idea as their reviews require a no ‘no-follow’ links to the sponsor. Mark has written a post on some new improvements there. Also, a belated happy birthday for blog’s first birthday.
  
• Photobucket Improves Slideshow Tool - Brown of Brown Thoughts
  I have used Photobucket a lot in the past and they have come up with some new improvements. Read all about it in Brown’s post. Don’t forget to checkout the funny slideshow he has made!
  
• Encrypt Folders with Folder Encryption - Madhur Kapoor
  Learn how to encryot complete folders in your system with Madhur’s cool post.
• Create Online Flip Books From PDF Easily - My post at Techie-Buzz
  As the title suggests, you can now create some cool online flip books with this service. Very neat.

That’s it for this week and hope you enjoy whatever’s left in the weekend. We are off to P.F.Changs for lunch to celebrate a friend’s birthday.

Thanks to all those who stopped by to wish me on my birthday. I have spent the last year learning, growing and having a lot of fun in the blogging world. Here are some great posts that I came across since my last roundup.

• Booking a hotel, the ProBargainHunter way - ProBargainHunter
  One of my favorite bargain sites shares ideas and tips when you are booking a hotel through sites such as Priceline, Hotwire, etc.
• 8 Characteristics of a Well Designed About Page - Tish of BloggingGal
  I have long neglected my about page and Tish has given me the motivation to sit down and re-work it. Check out her convincing reasons to see why you should do it too. Also, check out her monthly contest where she gives away a cool 125×125 ad space to one winner who subscribes to her RSS feed. She is giving away an ad space to read such quality content! No kidding.. just add the feed already!
• Check Pagerank of all Internal Pages on your Site - Fahad of Technodorm
  Fahad is sharing how you can see Google PR for links in your site live in a visual way. It even shows the nofollow links with a red cross. Check out this post on other options of doing this as well.
• Don’t Let Your CommentLuv Be Stolen Away! - Stephen of More Than Scratch the Surface
  I really enjoy reading Stephen’s well thought-out, incisive, to-the-point writing style. This time he is writing about the merits of CommentLuv WordPress plugin and how you could take advantage of it. Also, take note of the section where he mentiones how Feedburner url redirection could be hurting your Google juice in this context. Excellent post, Stephen!
• Passive Income, or How To Make Money Without Trying - RT of Untwisted Vortex
  I started blogging with monetizing my blog at the farthest corner of my mind but it has become a reality in a year. So, if you haven’t yet considered it atleast read this excellent post by RT and see if you are sitting on a gold mine. I am far from making a bunch but in the last couple of months I have made enough to more than cover the costs of hosting. My next goal is to see if it can cover maybe the cost of a nice dinner and a movie every month.
• Download BitTorrent Files Without A Client - My post at TechieBuzz
  BitTorrent is a great way to share and get files for legitimate reasons even though most often it is usually identified with illegal file sharing. Find out how you can download files ia BitTorrent from a browser without a bittorrent client. Also, check out Keith’s post on a call for help. Silki an author at TechieBuzz just like me, could use some for her brother who is ill.

Also, check Kontera’s Video contest where you could win some cool cash prizes ($500, $200 & $100). Thanks Matthew of Blog About Your Blog for the heads up.

Hope you enjoyed this week’s round up. Hope you found a couple of new blogs to add to your feed reader as well.

I have my greatest respect to those who are diligent in writing posts everyday for their blogs. I have so far stuck to a schedule that works for me which 4-5 posts a week and sometimes more. I absolutely love blogging but I do that in spare time after work and in weekends.

I have tried to schedule posts but that just doesn’t work for my style. I like to post things that are on my mind that day as I think that lets me have a conversation about it not just in the post but in the comments as well with you.

It has its obvious disadvantages too with the blog getting neglected when ‘daily life’ interferes. In a blog where ‘technology meets daily life’ (ShanKri-la’ ), I’m sure you’d understand that as a reader.

We had some of our good friends over past weekend and my wife and I were busy playing hosts. Here are some of the posts that caught my attention in the past few weeeks and I wanted to share them with you in this week’s roundup:

• The Hardest Thing I’ve Ever Done - RT of Untwisted Vortex
  I have been reading RT’s blog ever since I saw his comments in my buddy Matt’s blog ejabs.com. He has a very personal blog and that is one of the reasons he has a great community around it.
  RT wrote a post on a personal difficulty he was facing with his wife’s illness and he was completely taken by a storm of genuine goodwil from the blogosphere. You can read all about it in this post and also check out various bloggers who helped spread the word. I wish I was able to post this in time to help spread the word myself. RT, in an attempt to pay back, writes about how the road to success is paved with stones of failure.
• How to Show Bidvertiser Feed Ads to Current Subscribers - Step-By-Step Guide - IngaOz of NiggyBuzz
  Bidvertiser is a popular alternative to Google Adsense and they have now started offering advertisements for your RSS feed. IngaOz shos you how you can add Bidvertiser ads to your RSS feed in simple steps.
• A Few Good Domains For Sale - Kyle of SlickMania
  My good friend Kyle of Kyle’s Cove has rebranded his site to SlickMania.com (RSS). Make sure you get his new RSS feed and check out his redesign effort as well.
  Kyle is one of the most friendly and helpful bloggers out there. He has opened up his domain portfolio for those interested in getting some good domain names that are for sale.
• New Gmail for the iPhone - Official Gmail Blog
  iPhone users with Gmail accounts just got a sweet treat from the Gmail team. Gmail on iPhone now sports a new interface with 2 slick features added. New mail pre-fetching is going to make getting to new emails faster. Also, when you want to get to a contact, now auto-complete works making it easier to get to the contacts with a few letters.
• Make Your DVDs View on Demand and Save Space, Too! - Tim of Daily Cup of Tech
  Tim of DCOT shows how you can use some cheap hardware and free software to build a on demand movie library from your DVD collection.
• Enso - A Humane Program Launcher - My post at TechieBuzz
  I have been using Launchy so far and I liked it. When I came across Enso Launcher, I almost wrote this post with a title ‘Is Enso Launcher a Launchy Killer?’. Then I realized that Launchy is popular because it is simple to use by everybody and Enso Launcher will become the tool of choice for those unafraid of doing things differently and learning new things. If you start using Enso Launcher, be warned of the mind-boggling productivity at your (Windows) computer you are going to start reaping from using it.

I hope you enjoyed this week’s roundup of some great posts from the blogs I read.

Sorry I have gone missing a little this week. I have been swamped with my day job and a little re-design I have been working on for ShanKri-la. Watch out for a post on that front this week. I do however have some very interesting reads for you this morning.

• Free Screen Sharing and Remote Access Web Tools - Silki of Web Tools and Tips
  Residing in the United States, I do try to assist my family over in India with some occasional computer trouble and use screen sharing all the time. Silki has compiled a nice list of some tools. I have had the pleasure of meeting her through my gig at TechieBuzz.
• The Easy Way To Run Your Own File Server - Brown of Brown Thoughts
  Running your run file server has never been this easy. Brown walks you through this task in his inimitable style with plenty of screenshots.
• Collective effort restores David Airey.com - David Airey
  I was fortunate enough win ShanKri-la’s logo design from the famous David Airey at a Problogger.net contest. I was saddened when I heard that his domain name was hijacked by someone. Read on to find out how David found out about this and how he restored DavidAirey.com.
• 38 Things About Me - Tish of ChattieKat
  I have been a long time reader of ChattieKat. I love her writing style and I am always trying pick up a few pointers. It was very interesting to read 38 things about her. Thanks Tish for not tagging me with this one.. it would have been soo hard. But, I do appreciate the NoDirectOn award you presented me. I am humbled.
• PrinterAnywhere - Remote Printing Can’t Get Easier - My post at TechieBuzz
  Learn how you easily print to a remote printer without going through diffcult network settings or tinkering with your firewall.
• One Year Of CyberSurge! - Michael at CyberSurge
  Michael over at Cybersurge is celebrating one year of blogging anis giving away an iPod shuffle to a lucky commenter. Just leave a comment on the above post telling him your favorite post from his blog. You have to be in the US to enter. Great going, Mike! Wish you another great year.

With the New Year lurking so close, what is everyone up to?

I was just going through my Google Reader starred items and found these gems that I wanted to share with you. Enjoy!

• Caution: Online MD5 Cracker Tool - Ryan of CybetNet News
  MD5 is a popular encoding used widely for encrypting passwords. It is scary to find out that these MD5 encryptions could be hacked. Find out how safe your passwords are.
• Flickr upload tool turns 3.0, goes open-source - Stephen at Webware
  Flickr upload tool is a favorite of many Flickr users and it has gone open source with version 3.0. At the same time, Flickr Pro users can now see statistics about who views their pictures. If you get DSL through Yahoo/AT&T, you’ll get it for free too.
• The ‘TakeTV’ Video Player - RT at UnTwisted Vortex
  RT tells you about this tiny USB drive looking TV player. Read on if you’d like TV on the go.
• Easiest way to type accents - Martin at gHacks
  If you type a lot of accent characters in your writing, you have to check out this free utility which would make your life much easier.
• Top 10 New and Improved Apps of 2007 - Gina at Lifehacker
  I love this list of top 10 apps of 2007 which lists a lot of my favorite apps. I am not a Mac user so my number would be something else. Oops did I spoil your surprise?
• PuTTY Tray - Can PuTTY Get Any Snazzier? - My post at Techie Buzz
  If you are a Linux user or even if you just use PuTTY to connect to web host, check this neat improvemnt to PuTTY.

Hope you liked these links and I’ll see you tomorrow!

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