Data Illustrate Reach of the Web

This Weblog has been an educational venture. It has been interesting to watch it develop, and I offer thanks to my colleague, Dr. Rob Potter, for blazing the trail. I know that many of my close colleagues and/or friends read the Weblog, because they often comment about things I have written.

Interestingly, the comments have waned as of late. There are fewer comments these days. I am not sure exactly what that means, but it indicates that the interactive component of this Weblog (N = 1) has lost some of its appeal.

The newest development to the Weblog is the stat counter at the bottom. This gives me a rough approximation of the number of people coming through. This Weblog averages about 13 unique visitors every day. Although readers are anonymous, it is not surprising that most of the page loads come from the states of Ohio (where I live) and Indiana (where most of my colleagues live).

The stat counter also has told me something about social networks. Again, users are anonymous (so don't stop reading), but if users get to this Weblog by clicking on another link, then the counter records that referring page. A good proportion of my readers get to this site from Rob Potter's The Audio Prof Weblog. Since his Weblog predates mine, it makes sense that some readers began reading his site regularly and then added this one to their routine. But it was their habit to begin with professor Potter, and they have continued that.

About two weeks after adding the stat counter to this Weblog, I added it to my main Communication & Cognition Web site. This site is more than two years old, and it generates much more traffic. It took a long time for www.commcognition.com to become listed on Google, but now that it is, the search engine sends me a good bit of traffic. Right now, if you Google search "communication" and "cognition," this Weblog is the fifth thing that comes up [click here]. Of course, that will change over time as the search algorithm updates. If you Google "communication" and "psychophysiology," my Web site is the ninth thing that comes up [click here].

Since midnight, there have been page loads from India, Australia, and Turkey, each of which came from a search engine. PDFs of my research are posted on my Web site, and these data suggest that the site is doing a decent job of getting the work "out there."

The combination of the Web site and the Weblog appear particularly helpful. So, thank you, Rob, for blazing the Weblog trail for the Annie Lang family tree. The data also help understand the medium, which, I believe, is one of the reasons Rob started his Weblog.