The 3 Best Google Analytics Android Apps

If you’re running a blog, Google Analytics may be the best single tool to analyse your web traffic. Available for free, and capable of providing excellent data, Analytics is a must-have.

The basic site isn’t well optimized for mobile devices however, which can be frustrating for webmasters who want to keep tabs on sites without dragging around a laptop. Thankfully, some Android developers have come to the rescue with apps specifically designed to make Analytics easy to use on a smartphone.

gAnalytics [2.2+]

Free is always great, but sometimes it comes at the price of functionality. This is particularly true of apps that are compatible with Google Analytics. Several options (including Droid Analytics, below) are paid, and that isn’t going to be attractive to everyone.

Fortunately, the free price tag on gAnalytics doesn’t require much in the way of sacrifice from users. This app packs most of the information that you’ll need including visitors, popular keywords, referring sites, and more. Better yet, it does so with an interface which is actually more practical and professional than that of Droid Analytics.

The downside? Despite many interface advantages, switching between different timeframes when looking at site data is a pain in the butt, and Droid Analytics can provide more data at once. These are not massive flaws, however, and I suspect most users will be happy with what gAnalytics offers.

Droid Analytics [1.1+]

This rather clunky app receives isn’t hard to use, but receives no praise for its appearance. It looks and feels like a java program for a computer that’s been crammed on to a small screen, and while it’s as quick as any other app, it seems outdated.

If you can get over the appearance, however, you’ll find a wonderful app that provides a lot of Google Analytics data. What I most about this app is how easy it is to view data from different time periods. You can view the last seven days, the last 30 days, or any other time period by touching the clock icon. It’s also possible to break down data by different increments. For example, you can see the number of visitors you’ve received by day, by week, or by year.

Despite what I like about this app, and the fact I’ll probably use it instead of gAnalytics in the future, I think the current price of $3.47 is steep considering the lack of attention to detail. The developer really should slap a new coat of paint on it.

There is one advantage to be old and crusty, however – this app will work on Android versions as old as 1.1.

Simple Analytics Widget [2.1+]

Both of the above apps are suitable for most users, but they are missing one important feature. A widget. I mean, come on. Every Android app needs a widget!

Thankfully there are some available, and among them, I prefer Simple Analytics Widget. The reasons are quite simple. First, the widget is the best looking of the bunch, presenting information in simple but attractive bold font. Second, the widget can present several different types of data (such as visits a day, page views per day, or bounce rate).

To add icing to this tasty widget cake, you’ll find the widget is easy to use, as it connects straight to your selected Google account rather than asking for a specific username/password combination.

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Blogumus: a flash animated 3D label cloud for Blogger

"Blogumus" is an Flash based tag cloud widget in which labels are displayed rotating in 3D.

How it works

 This widget uses a combination of JavaScript and Flash animation to parse and display your blog labels. Once installed in your template, it should work "out of the box" without any additional tweaking required, though of course you may prefer to change the variables for color, background and size if appropriate :) You should also be able to move the Label Cloud widget through the Page Elements page of your dashboard if you prefer display in a different layout location. To see Blogumus in action, both Flash and Javascript must be installed and enabled for your internet browser. However, it does degrade relatively gracefully, and label links will still be clickable (though not animated) for those who do not use JavaScript of Flash (including search engine spiders).

How to install Blogumus in your Blogger layout

Installing Blogumus in your Blogger layout is surprisingly simple! You should only need to copy and paste a section of code to your Blogger template, though any tweaks for the style of display will require some manual editing. Here are the steps required to install Blogumus in your Blogger layout: Go to Layout>Edit HTML in your Blogger dashboard, and search for the following line (or similar):

<b:section class='sidebar' id='sidebar' preferred='yes'>

Immediatly after this line, paste the following section of code:

<b:widget id='Label99' locked='false' title='Labels' type='Label'>
<b:includable id='main'>
<b:if cond='data:title'>
<h2><data:title/></h2>
</b:if>
<div class='widget-content'>
<script src='http://sites.google.com/site/bloggerustemplatus/code/swfobject.js' type='text/javascript'/>
<div id='flashcontent'>Blogumulus by <a href='http://www.roytanck.com/'>Roy Tanck</a> and <a href='http://www.bloggerbuster.com'>Amanda Fazani</a></div>
<script type='text/javascript'>
var so = new SWFObject(&quot;http://sites.google.com/site/bloggerustemplatus/code/tagcloud.swf&quot;, &quot;tagcloud&quot;, &quot;240&quot;, &quot;300&quot;, &quot;7&quot;, &quot;#ffffff&quot;);
// uncomment next line to enable transparency
//so.addParam(&quot;wmode&quot;, &quot;transparent&quot;);
so.addVariable(&quot;tcolor&quot;, &quot;0x333333&quot;);
so.addVariable(&quot;mode&quot;, &quot;tags&quot;);
so.addVariable(&quot;distr&quot;, &quot;true&quot;);
so.addVariable(&quot;tspeed&quot;, &quot;100&quot;);
so.addVariable(&quot;tagcloud&quot;, &quot;<tags><b:loop values='data:labels' var='label'><a expr:href='data:label.url' style='12'><data:label.name/></a></b:loop></tags>&quot;);
so.addParam(&quot;allowScriptAccess&quot;, &quot;always&quot;);
so.write(&quot;flashcontent&quot;);
</script>
<b:include name='quickedit'/>
</div>
</b:includable>
</b:widget>

Then preview your template. If installed correctly, you should see the tag cloud appear in your sidebar. Then you are free to save your template, edit the colors and dimensions as required, or move it to a different location. That's all!

Customizing Blogumus

In this default installation, Blogumus includes the following preset variables:

• Width is set to 240px
• Height is set to 300px;
• Background color is white
• Test color is grey
• Font size is "12"

If you would prefer to make your widget wider, shorter, change the color scheme, etc, you will need to do this by editing various parts of the code. I'll go through these options in the order they appear in the widget code. Editing width and height The variables for width and height are found in this line of the script:

var so = new SWFObject("http://sites.google.com/site/bloggerustemplatus/code/tagcloud.swf", "tagcloud", "240", "300", "7", "#ffffff");

The width (currently 240) is highlighted in red, while the height (300px default) is highlighted in blue. These numerical values specify the width and height in pixels, so you can alter these of you prefer. Editing background color You can change the background color from white to any other color by altering the hex value in the same line:

var so = new SWFObject("http://sites.google.com/site/bloggerustemplatus/code/tagcloud.swf", "tagcloud", "240", "300", "7", "#ffffff");

For example, if you prefer a bright red background, you may replace #ffffff with #ff0000. Take a look at this page for a list of commonly used hex color codes. Alter the color of text By default, the text is set to display as dark grey ( hex value #333333). You can alter this variable in the following line:

so.addVariable("tcolor", "0x333333");

Be aware that "tcolor" is a Flash variable and doesn't include the usual hash symbol of hex color codes. Be sure to only replace the numbers! Adjust the font size The maximum font size of tags is specified in this line:

so.addVariable("tagcloud", "<tags><b:loop values='data:labels' var='label'><a expr:href='data:label.url' style='12'><data:label.name/></a></b:loop></tags>");

You can alter this to ensure tags are displayed in a bigger or smaller font if you prefer by changing "12" to a larger or smaller number. While making any of these changes, you should be able to preview your widget and be certain that your new choice of color, dimensions and background are suitable for your needs.

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