Idly looking at my Google analytics for http://drmaciver.com . The first thing I observe is that once again Google analytics have reorganised to make it harder to find the only two pieces of information 99% of people want from it. Why am I even still using this software?
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Analytics are deliberately uninterpretable to keep C-level execs from figuring out that the ads don't work, but provide lots of random graphs, *one* of which, at any time, will prove that spending more money on Google ads will have fabulous ROI. 2/
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This is a typical dynamic of "enterprise software"—it's designed to be bad enough that you need to hire specialists to interpret the entrails, and then those people are highly motivated to keep you buying it. Oracle DBAs being the canonical example. 3/
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Yup! Thanks for the pointer, though! (I browse HN to get to sleep, and the ongoing arguments about whether online advertising works are some of the most interesting.)
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I'm not as certain as you that advertising as a whole mostly doesn't work, but Google's ad services are ... rusty, to put it generously they definitely suffer from the monopoly problem of being huge, unmotivated, and creaking under their own weight
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it feels like Google has succumbed to the Iron Law of Institutions, where their primary goal at this point is to keep their head above water for one more day
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