Meta-counters and meta-analysis became available in Openstat

The other day, Openstat quietly rolled out a new feature, which is officially called "Grouping counters."

I will say right away that I was somewhat against this title, but I bent under the arguments of other participants in this development. Meanwhile, inside the company, we still continue to call this tool “meta counter”, so let me sometimes use that name in my note.

Now to the point ... what is a meta counter? In our case, these are statistics and analytics, obtained on the basis of data coming not from one, but from several counters at once.
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Let's take a look at how this is done in the interface:

• open your Openstat and click on the cherished button above the list of your sites (counters):

the screen goes to the selection mode of counters to combine them

• select the counters that we want to combine:

• and give the name of the new counter:

Immediately in the list of projects there is another, which differs visually with a green loot at the end of the name with a communication icon and an indication of the number of real meters included in the set.

If you click on the green bubble, you can find out which sites are included in the meta-counter set and get access to the editor of this list:



From the moment of creation, the calculation of statistics for the selected counters begins as if it were one data source, one counter. For this, the data coming from the counters-sources, are cloned at the very beginning - at the time of their receipt from the sites and further processed in the same way as any other counter.

This technology offers tremendous advantages over combining the finished results (as some other counters do) because it allows you to count the complete set of reports with absolute accuracy (I want to remind you that Openstat considers all reports accurately, without sampling or other approximations). After all, it is impossible to combine “later” unique visitors and a number of other data unique for different periods.

But there is a drawback corresponding to this approach: receiving reports from raw data does not allow building a retrospective picture. In other words, the statistics of the combined counter starts to be collected only from the moment of its creation.

What can:

• add any number of counters to one combined;

• add counters of other users to their sets, if the latter give their consent;

• remove counters from the union at any time;

• create and change the name of the meta-counter;

• receive any reports based on meta-meter data, including custom ones;

• manage access to reports by meta-counter.

Why not:

• you cannot add other meta-counters to the meta-counter;

• Meta-counter can not consist of one counter, because it is meaningless.

Separately, I want to emphasize that it is possible to assemble into the group counters belonging to different users. To do this, it is enough for partners to give each other the right to “read” one or another counter.

Accordingly, when a partner revokes the right to read the counter, it automatically leaves the association.

I propose to consider a few simple but illustrative examples of the use of meta-counters.

In my opinion, meta-counters are most clearly manifested in the following situations:

0. The simplest and most understandable case: calculate the statistics of all-all of your sites in order to know the total picture by audience, traffic sources and other digital possessions.

1. Combining several sites of the same / similar topics into a common counter for obtaining summary information about their audience; in my example, these are sites about alcohol and tobacco, combined in the “Bad Habits” counter.

2. Getting the combined statistics of multi-domain sites and portals. I will dwell on this case in more detail.

Meta counters are very useful when used in conjunction with a “universal counter”. Last, I remind you, this is unchangeable JS-code that can be copied to any sites and collect statistics even without prior registration with Openstat.

When it turns out that your site has several domains, the statistics of which are counted separately by the universal counter, the meta counter will allow you to put it together.

For example, you have site.ru , pda.site.ru and demo.site.ru on one platform. A universal counter installed on the platform will collect statistics separately for each domain, and the grouping will provide an opportunity to collect all or part of them into general statistics.

In my (personal) case, it looks like this: a universal counter is installed on the zzweb.ru platform. And I integrate the sites created on this platform into different groups. For example, I collect sites into groups by their owners and see which of them has some popularity, the character of the audience, the region, and so on.

Or another example: the site caricatura.ru has a separate part on zzweb - zz.caricatura.ru . I collected these two sites in a meta-counter in order to see the real attendance of the caricature.

3. Of course, the meta-counter is very useful for those who are looking for partners to work together. For example, for the sale of advertising spaces.

Owners of small thematic sites now have the opportunity to collect statistics in a common counter, in order to offer their total advertising space, competing with larger players.

Meta counters, I will tell you, this is a very strong business tool in the Openstat feature line.

Now, Openstat users have the most extensive data collection and combining capabilities:

• You can install several different counters on one site (in different parts of it or download different counters for some conditions);

• You can install the same counter on multiple sites to collect mixed data;

• You can install a universal counter on any sites, even without registering with Openstat, and statistics will begin to be collected immediately. And access to it can be obtained later, when / if required;

• and, finally, you can combine any counters into groups to read the full set of reports on the combined data.

It seems that today we have implemented the widest and every conceivable combination of installing meters and processing data from them.

Come try it out - openstat.com and thank you for your interest in our development.

Ru Kurepin