HitTail - Yay or Nay?

[Mark H]

Originally Posted by los_design

What has this got to do with Actinic by the way?

It's under "Ecommerce Business Issues", it's in response to the OP, plus a direct query from a forum member, and some of us are finding it useful.

[drounding]

I do think this is relevant to this forum.

I have given this a once over - here are some personal thoughts/findings...

The Pros:
1. It does make access to the referrer information easier and then tracks it better than some other stat systems and because of that I do think it may assist in some ways. For some people it will be very useful indeed.
2. It is very interesting watching the search info come in in real time.

The Cons:
1. I could see no way to close an account.
2. The email address is not validated, although on the site it says it is.
3. You can enter any domain, not neccessarily yours - thus blocking that domain from using Hittail in the future as it will come up with domain already in use even if the code hasn't been added. There is no way of ensuring that the site URL entered in the registration is yours or that you have access to the site via FTP even. (Searching and finding sites that are using this code is easy using Google)
4. It is possible to view stats from another site - I've managed to do this easily with someone elses site (the other site owner knows about it) - I'm not going to publish how on the forum but I did it very easily.

[Stereo Steve]

Thanks Mike.

#32 They may well charge a fee at some point and do have a 'pro' product already. At the moment it's free to try, just like GA and awstats. Who's to say they won't start to charge as well? We can't see the future.

Personally, I'm finding it very useful and can see the reasoning it. As for what it has to do with actinic? Well, actinic is an ecommerce product, this is an ecommerce forum and hittail is aimed at ecommerce sites.

If hittail is useful enough to a big enough number of people then they have every right to charge for it. Just like you and I charge for our services / products.

[Stereo Steve]

#34 Wouldn't that involve putting code onto the other person's site though? That would mean you had to have FTP access.

[drounding]

Originally Posted by Stereo Steve

#34 Wouldn't that involve putting code onto the other person's site though? That would mean you had to have FTP access.

You can register any domain before you put the code up. If the true site 'owner' then wanted to use Hittail - they can't because they will be told that the domain is already in use.

As far as viewing other sites stats, yes the code was put up by the site owner - they can view their Hittail stats - but so could I.

[leehack]

Originally Posted by los_design

Post Removed By Co. Owner

I believe you, them new staff huh....sigh

[Stereo Steve]

Probably fired already. Almost like they never existed.

[george]

I think stuff like this are relevant facts to site owners.


Its how you interpet them thats King.

[TraceyHand]

Originally Posted by Stereo Steve

Probably fired already. Almost like they never existed.

what a cynical bunch you all are

[los_design]

Originally Posted by Stereo Steve

Probably fired already. Almost like they never existed.

"It is wiser to let people think you are a fool,
than open your mouth and remove all doubt."

[Mike Levin]

Thanks for the positive feedback. We're looking over the "cons" to eliminate them. We pretty much keep on top of everything said about HitTail by everyone on every site, and use that feedback to continuously improve. Very useful thread and site.

And remember, it's more than just a real-time view of your logs. Any suggestion that HitTail issues, if written about, will often catapult you to the top of the search results on that topic. Kept up over time, the snowball effect occurs, and hopefully, domination of your particular industry niche.