This evening I checked summary statistics from Google Analytics for the past year. Here is what I found:

• There were 6,713 unique visitors to the site, which averages out to about 18.4 visitors per day
• Visitors tend to spend only about a minute on the site each visit
• The browser used by visitors breaks down as follows:
  • Internet Explorer – 46.51%
  • Firefox – 41.53%
  • Safari – 9.65%
  • Mozilla – 1.02%
  • Netscape – .48%
• Traffic sources include 38.36% of visitors who find FML via search engines; 31.68% who go directly to the site (in other words, the site is bookmarked or the URL is typed in directly); and 27.42% of traffic comes from referring sites. Of the 38.36% of visitors who find FML via a search engine, the vast majority of them uses Google (over 80%).
• The vast majority of visitors uses Windows as their operating system (80.45%). 17.93% use Mac OS X. 1.38% use Linux.

I am especially pleased at the good showing for non-IE browsers. Something else that is of interest is what keywords people use in a search engine that leads them to FML. Here are some of the top keywords, aside from the obvious ones such as “family man librarian”: “portable browsers”, “everyone has a double”, “library related wordpress theme” and “praise you in the storm.”

[tags]blog traffic, google analytics[/tags]

• Log in to WordPress admin and write a post there
• Use Flock‘s built-in editor
• Windows Live Writer
• WordPress Dashboard widget (OS X)
• Blog by email

And this isn’t all. There are some more editors or methods I’ve used that I can’t recall right now. I’ve tried a whole bunch of different ones.

Bet you would never guess that I’d point to a Microsoft product as one I’m liking more and more: Windows Live Writer. (To paraphrase or misuse a well known Bible verse: “Can anything good come out of Nazareth Redmond?”)

Although it is still officially in beta, I am using ver. 1.0 and enjoying its features, including the fact that there is a small but growing set of third party plug-ins for things I might use. Among them are plug-ins for inserting Snagit screen captures, Technorati tags, Flickr images, Bible verses, maps, tables, videos, and more. It seems to format the output nicely and correctly (something that hasn’t been the case in the past for some Microsoft products), and offers one of the best preview options I’ve seen anywhere. I also like the fact that there are several good keystroke shortcuts built-in.

I love Google Desktop Search. I use it every day. I particularly like the fact that it now supports indexing of Thunderbird. I wouldn’t use it if I was in a purely OS X environment, because the search in Mail, iTunes, and Sherlock in general work so much faster and better than anything in Windows, it’s ridiculous. I’m looking forward to the new built-in desktop search, called Spotlight, that will be a major feature of OS X 10.4 (Tiger). But, since I have to live in a Windows environment at work, Google Desktop has become a valuable tool that I use on my WinXP laptop.

Having read this piece, though, I’m wondering more about privacy and security concerns.

What annoys the heck out of me is that our university’s IT department is completely sold on Windows and it seems like if they had their way, all Mac computers would be banned from campus. I fully understand the desire to maximize limited resources by trying to be as uniform as possible with a computing platform, and I also understand that Wintel equipment is significantly cheaper to buy and all, but just about everybody I speak with in that area is totally ignorant about Mac computers and OS X in particular. In fact, anyone with whom I’ve ever spoken about the Mac (yes, I do try to evangelize) is openly hostile to Macs. Another example: I’m on a university-wide strategic technology, planning, and assessment committee. Recently this group went through a prioritization exercise to determine what issues should be top priorities for the near future. One of those issues on the lengthy list of possibilities was Mac support. The end result of the survey? Mac support came in dead last. I think I was the only one in the group who put it in the top ten.

OK, sorry, rant over. But wait, there is one more thing that I can’t resist mentioning: I can run just about any WinXP program on my Mac (using Virtual PC) — and easily communicate and play nicely with our Windows network at work at the same time. Top that, Microsoft.