在 Hacker News Daily 上看到在討論 Google Analytics 會愈來愈不準的問題:「58% of Hacker News, Reddit and tech-savvy audiences block Google Analytics」,先大概知道 Plausible 也是一個分析工具,宣稱重視隱私以及相關法規 (...),所以網站裡面提到的推論可以看看就好,這次我主要是看數字而已。另外當然,Hacker News 上對這篇文章的討論「Tech-savvy audiences block Google Analytics (plausible.io)」也可以翻翻。
作者先前注意到愈一般性的網站,阻擋率就愈低,但科技相關的網站就會高到失真:
In a previous study, I’ve found that less than 10% of visitors block Google Analytics on foodie and lifestyle sites but more than 25% block it on tech-focused sites.
其實不算太意外,除了 Google 自家的瀏覽器,其他的瀏覽器愈來愈多預設就會擋掉各種 tracker,而科技相關網站的受眾常常會「保護自己」。
首先的段落提到的全站的比率,有大量的使用者會擋掉 Google Analytics (要注意這邊是拿科技類網站的數字,不是一般性的網站),:
58% of visitors block Google Analytics
然後是桌機與筆電的使用者阻擋率比較高 (還是科技類網站的數字):
68% of laptop and desktop users block Google Analytics
另外提到 Firefox 使用者的阻擋率超高,應該是幾乎都會裝套件擋,另外記得新版的 Firefox 預設會擋,可能也有關係 (再提醒一下,這是科技類網站):
88% of Firefox users block Google Analytics
另外一個不算意外的是 Linux 使用者也是擋的很兇 (科技類網站):
82% of Linux users block Google Analytics
這有兩個重點蠻重要的,第一個是,就算你不是科技類網站,你也應該試著用其他工具「校正」Google Analytics 的數字,你要知道 Google Analytics 偏差了多少。
第二個是 Firefox 使用者的數量可能都被低估了,以 Firefox 阻擋率這麼高的情況下,有可能 Firefox 使用者會裝各種阻擋工具,把各種分析平台都擋一輪。不要直接用這些工具的數字決定忽略掉 Firefox 的使用者,最好要多方面驗證:
I expected these numbers to be higher. However, an even more interesting metric is the 88% block in Firefox.
Firefox may not have a great market share, but based on these numbers it's market share may very well be eight times higher than your analytics report. This can change the argument of "it's only 3% of our users so we don't need to test on FF" to "it's a quarter of our user base, we should at least test it", depending on your target audience. I've seen tons of people claim general Firefox usage is negligible based on public data from websites such as statcounter, but these metrics prove that those statistics are unreliable and should not be used.
The best you can do is use server side UA inspection, though you can't really distinguish bots from real users that way.
另外順便提,我在辦公室裡面推銷 uBlock Origin 的方式是跟他們說 YouTube 影片就沒有 Google 的廣告了 (業配那種不算),基本上用過就回不去了...