In a recent survey...

People love statistics, even though I've heard up to 47 percent of all statistics are made up on the spot.  It's And now, Google, and their blog site (blogger or blogspot.com), provides all kinds of statistics to their blogosphere.  It's great fun and provides me all kinds of information that is largely useless, but endlessly entertaining with the pie charts and bar graphs.

As a matter of fact, you might just be my 1000th blog viewer.  Congratulations, with that and a lottery ticket, you might just win something.  Seriously though, I now know that in the last month:

52% of my readers accessed my blog using a Windows Operating system

31% used a Mac

10% used an Android

I also know what web-browsers were used.  These are interesting facts, but I'm not sure how they apply to me as a blogger?  I guess I know the Android users are probably reading on the go, so I might be lite commute reading for someone, or killing time waiting in line at the DMV maybe?  Should I change my writing to meet these reading preferences?  Do you think I really considered that? I didn't, and I think these statistics probably help Google more than they help me.

I also have learned that I have International Readership, and I feel that is significant enough to capitalize.  Again for the last month:

53% US

24% Russia

6% each from Australia, UK and Netherlands

And just showing up on the radar are readers from Hong Kong, China, Germany and Latvia

I'm impressed I have such a wide readership, though I suspect it is mostly just my international friends on Facebook that were curious about what I might be blogging about.  The one that stumps me is the 24% readership in Russia. I don't think I know many people in Russia, and I'm curious how they may have stumbled on my blog.  Also, it makes me wonder if the numbers can be skewed by one person visiting the blog multiple times.  I'm sure Google is crunching my statistics as well, which makes me wonder what they make of my international appeal. 

All these statistics remind me of a few lines from Don Henley's song 'Garden of Allah.'  I like the song, and I thought it was a dark commentary on banking and politics of the 80's and it still applied to the political/banking situation of today.  However, in writing this blog, I learned 'The Garden of Allah' was actually a famous apartment complex in Hollywood, at the end of the Sunset Strip (also a Don Henley song). 

Anyway, with regards to crunching numbers Don says:

I will testify for you,

I'm a gun for hire,I'm a saint, I'm a liar
Because there are no facts, there is no truth
Just data to be manipulated.
I can get you any result you like
What's it worth to you?

I'm not sure I have enough stats to 'get you any result you like,' but I'm sure Google's manipulating the data right now to get you the result you will like... on your next search.

Don also mentions a Fitzgerald and Huxley in his song alluding to their writing.  Since I was writing a blog, I was also curious who Fitzgerald and Huxley were, so I did a little more research, and learned F. Scott Fitzgerald lived in the Hollywood apartments for a time in the '30's. According to Wikipedia, he wrote himself a postcard while there: "Dear Scott -- How are you? Have been meaning to come in and see you. I have living [sic] at the Garden of Allah. Yours, Scott Fitzgerald."

More wine Mr Fitzgerald?  Evidently the apartments had many famous guests and tenants like: Greta Garbo, John Barrymore, Buster Keaton, Harpo Marx, Humphry Bogart, Ernest Hemingway, George Kaufman and others; and it was known for all the debauchery one might associate with Hollywood.  You can read more about it here:  http://www.waltlockley.com/gardenofallah/gardenofallah.htm

But I digress.  Getting back to my Google statistics, they also let me know which posts have been read the most, or not read at all.  My top three posts are:

1. The Great Wall

2. Free Press in a Counter Insurgency

3. Random Ramblings from Afghanistan

I think posting the links on Facebook has given the second two an edge, although I was surprised my commentary on Free Press was so popular.  Also, of all my posts, I'm not sure why the Great Wall has become number one, but now that I have announced it's popularity I suspect it will remain at the top, trends become self promoting at some point... while others are just promoted by their author.

However, what I would really like to see is some traffic on some of my unread posts.  In particular, these two posts were some of my favorites to write, and yet they have never been read according to my google stats:

Shirt Shopping India Style:
http://randomramblingsofanamericanabroad.blogspot.com/2009/03/shirt-shopping-swindlers.html

Train to Maduri:
http://randomramblingsofanamericanabroad.blogspot.com/2009/03/train-to-madurai.html

So give them some love, I think you will enjoy them.