ping

ping

Your very own Google Analytics replacement, without all of the Google. Simple as pie.

Motivation

Google Analytics is creepy. It knows where you are, what computer you're using, what browser you're using, what page you visited, and so on. It has horizontal data for IP addresses, so Google knows what sites you've visited across the Internet, for how long, and what your path was. I'm uncomfortable giving Google all this data. In fact, I even wrote a blog post about how to block the various tracking services.

But, I wanted to know what my "greatest" hits are. I wanted to see what people liked and didn't like. Using Google Anayltics isn't an option, but what about using something much simpler? Enter: ping.

Ping: What It Is

Ping is a tiny little server that logs three things:

• IP address of visitor
• URL they visited
• When the visit happened

A single tiny JavaScript file that the user requests sends down these three things and that's all there is to it. As unintrusive as possible, while still providing insight into the site's strenghts.

Installation

Want to run ping? No problem.

$ go get github.com/parkr/ping
$ mysql -e 'create database ping;'
$ PORT=8972 PING_DB=user:passwd@localhost/ping ping

Specify a port (defaults to 8000) and a database URL and you're off to the races. Enjoy!

Running behind a proxy? No problem. Specify PING_PROXIED=true when invoking ping and you're good to go.