When you first installed Google Analytics
 

Did you notice your Google traffic change one way or the other; a jump, drop or still the same?

Same, no changes.

......drop :(

Why do people use google analytics? That seems like a really exceptionally bad business decision.

Never installed...

Fuck Google, go Booble :)

You think they're controlling the amount of traffic after you insert their code?

I didnt notice a change really

Why? I've been using it for many years and haven't had sites drop out yet. Just don't do anything shady.

And panda hit me, but all sites are more or less back up again haha :pimp

You're ok with google, the #1 source of quality traffic and seller of advertising, having access to all of your traffic information? Nothing good can come from them being able to use your traffic data however they see fit.

There are excellent free alternatives out there. Run your own stats tracking software and all of your data belongs to you. Between piwik and server log parsing there's absolutely no good reason to use google analytics.

i agree :Oh crap

You are probably right, but so far it's been no problem for me. I think people are overly paranoid tbh, but then again wtf do I know :1orglaugh

Overly paranoid? You do realize that google is in the data mining business, right?

I have noticed that sites which I use it on, seem to get indexed faster. I've been told there's no truth to that, but in my experience always seems to be the case. :pimp

Yup :) but as I said, it's not done me any harm, I rank at the top for some keywords where I want to be and has done so for years.

Also adult is certainly not my main stream of income.

But maybe in a few years, when Google decides to publish all they know about me, I'll regret watching all that sick shit on the net :pimp so far *shrug*

But what would be a good alternative if I were to switch? I don't want to install a lot of software etc. I'm lazy damnit!

I don't really see any issue in using Google Analytics. I use it on my websites and it hasn't caused any issues in regard to ranking or traffic. While Google is in the data mining business, they're going to receive a massive amount of information from your site just from Google Toolbar, their own search stats, and third party apps/toolbars.

Plus, a lot of the other alternatives don't really compare.

You'll get more and better data by using a combination of piwik and server logs. As far as accuracy goes there is nothing that can compare to logs. I see no reason to ever willingly turn more data over to Google.

I don't know of anyone other than new webmasters who have the toolbar installed. Most newbies think that little green PR graph actually means something.

Agreed.

It probably won't do any harm if someone's only running one or a few sites. But it's one of the worst ideas imaginable if they are an seo and manage hundreds or thousands of sites.

a 3rd party hosted js based solution can never compare to something hosted or running on your own servers.

It can slow your site down too.

I always stayed away from it, used other programs, then recently I decided I wanted to see what it's all about as the people around me go on about it. My Google traffic had been steady for some time, with gradual increases. As soon as I installed it traffic went up 30%, it's continued at this new level ever since.

That's one of the main reasons I kept clear :thumbsup