New Features in Google Analytics

Following last November's post concerning new reports in Google Analytics [Google Analytics Recommended]. I just noticed another new report as a sub-heading under Visitors, for Mobile Devices and Mobile Carriers. I'm not really sure how long the reports have been available; however I did find some one's blog posting that the report came out in December. But the blog post also indicates that the 'Intelligence' reports also came out in Dec, except I found mine in Nov, so maybe it was a slow roll-out to users.

At any rate I found the report on Mobile Device users interesting because it shows the [Engineering] site getting more visits than I would have guessed coming in on cell phones. There have been 1,679 visits so far this year, say around 40 visits per day. I always figured most engineers would be sitting next to a computer no matter what they were doing. Maybe in the field there is no internet access so that leaves a wireless cell phone.

Now this number is still to low to force me to re-code for mobile users, 40 visits only amount to about 7 minutes of site usage over a 24 hour period. These days the page may be expanded or reduced on the screen, unlike a few years ago when a page had to be coded correctly to be seen on a small screen.

The sampled data from Analytics only goes back to November of 2009, but there has been an increase in phone usage over that time. Around 200 visits per week back in Nov. and around 280 per week for last month. So the trend is increasing.....

~ On a side note Internet Explorer is down another 3% this year [to date], with Google Chrome increasing by 3%.

Graphic: Google Analytics; Mobile Devices Report, by Operating Systems.