# MrExcel.com visitors by Country



## MrExcel (Jul 15, 2008)

I was checking out some statistics provided by Google Analytics. The graph at this page shows the top 20 countries for the first six months of the year.

http://www.mrexcel.com/weblog/2008/07/mrexcel-community-by-country.shtml

Do you have any subjective comments about if this data feels correct? I somewhat question if Google can be accurate with this statistic. If they can't tell, do they simply add it to the U.S.? I have other reasons to be skeptical - the numbers might fluctuate wildly from one week to the next, even though I am looking at allegedly the same time period.

This tracks the number of visits. If you come to MrExcel.com, click around 20 pages and then leave, this is a single visit. The total visits for the time period was about 5 million. 

Bill


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## Tom Urtis (Jul 15, 2008)

Just my opinion, but this seems generally commensurate with similar comparisons of internet users, or Excel or Word users, per country, in raw numbers.

What I think would be a meaningful analysis is a weighted factor of per country capita to gain perspective of these visits by country population.

Just thinking out loud, maybe dividing a country's raw number of visits into the respective country's total population (or over a basic Excel-comprehendable age, say age 10) might give a better indication of representation, and smooth out that bar chart. That way, a country like the United States would not have such a large bias advantage going into the survey because it is populated by several times more people than most other industrialized countries.

And maybe further, or alternatively, divided into the number of households and/or employees at businesses that have internet access...that might give an even better comparison of Excel interest by country.

Of course it would take resources (which MSFT has) to commission such a survey, maybe it will never happen but it'd sure be interesting to see the results.


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## starl (Jul 15, 2008)

What is google actually tracking? People who search google and follow the link to the board? If that's the case - then all our users who come here directly wouldn't get counted.


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## Greg Truby (Jul 15, 2008)

I agree with what Tom said.

Also, ¿donde están los mexicanos?  Spain shows up on the radar, but not Mexico?  Seems odd to me.  While we do get some Spaniards from time to time, I meet more Mexicans in the Other Languages forum than I meet Spaniards (when the members show their flag at all).


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## Tom Urtis (Jul 15, 2008)

starl said:


> What is google actually tracking? People who search google and follow the link to the board? If that's the case - then all our users who come here directly wouldn't get counted.


That is an excellent point. Further example, Russia is making a lot of noise with its Yandex search engine for which they are prepping a $2 billion IPO, and to eastern Europeans that is their Google (in fact, full Google access is hampered in China). The point is, with search engines leading to this or any site through communist country oversight, all bets are off for the reported accuracy of those countries' numbers.


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## sailepaty (Jul 15, 2008)

I know for sure that frequently they are Argentineans, Colombians, Mexicans, etc. visitors. The thinks is, that most of them already have Mr. Excel in their favorites or they are refered to here from Spanish forums.

Saludos
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## TinaP (Jul 15, 2008)

I always thought it would be fun if we had a map that all the Mr Excel visitors could put a pin in for their location.  It wouldn't be fully accurate as it would require the visitors to actively participate, but the truly "active" members of the community would participate.

That said, I don't have the knowledge to do it myself so I'd be impressed by anyone who could.


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## Greg Truby (Jul 15, 2008)

TinaP said:


> I always thought it would be fun if we had a map that all the Mr Excel visitors could put a pin in for their location.


Kristy (Von Pookie) did that <S>a year or two</S> three years<SUP>1</SUP> ago. Some sort of feature on Google maps. But I think it expired or something?


<HR>1. Thanks Matt


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## Oaktree (Jul 15, 2008)

We used to have one, Tina... but, it looks like it's deactivated now.

http://www.mrexcel.com/forum/showthread.php?t=156503


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## MrExcel (Jul 15, 2008)

Great question about Mexico... they show up as #21, with about 75% as many visits as Spain.

Google tracks statistics from the Google ads. I think they are trying to show a new ad each time, so they assume that requests from the same I.P. within n minutes are the same person visiting a new page. So - this is theoretically tracking the pages with the Google ads: the home page, the forum, and a few other pages.

They are able to accurately profile the popularity of the days of the week: the most activity on Weds, the least on the weekend. Those numbers seem correct. The geographic numbers don't quite feel right, though.

A map would be cool. 

How about this data, which seems even more unusual. The top 10 cities from which our community surfs to MrExcel, according to Google, based on the first 6 months of 2008.
# 1 London 247K visits
# 2 Unknown City 138K visits
#3 New York 121K visits
#4 Sydney 78K
#5 Melbourne 49K
#6 Singapore 45K
#7 Houston 37K
#8 Chicago 34K
#9 Bangalore 34K
#10 Wembley 29K

I guess the question is what do they define as London? If this reaches out to Southampton then you could be picking up many towns in between. Again, I am not sure how they could do this with any accuracy. But...interesting stats.

Bill


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## Richard Schollar (Jul 15, 2008)

I am mildly surprised that London has twice as many hits as New York - in my own little mind I would have thought they would have been broadly comparable.  So it is a good question as to how Google determines domicile.


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## starl (Jul 15, 2008)

I don't trust the city stuff - my isp gets their internet from someone else.. and *that* is shown as my provider when I trace my ip address. The 2nd party provider is NOT a local town... so I would be lumped to that town, tho it really isn't mine.

would search bots trigger the google ads???


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## schielrn (Jul 15, 2008)

Maybe this is what you are looking for:

http://www.mapservices.org/myguestmap/map/mrexcel

Hope that helps.


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## schielrn (Jul 15, 2008)

I only found this due to archived web pages which Tracy had pointed me to in a post a few months back.


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## erik.van.geit (Jul 15, 2008)

Belgium only 10th 
O, yes, I did post less in the past months 

Seriously, what is the real meaning of all this? Even if those stats are correct, it's only a gadget, not? At least it is for common people: perhaps the business guys have an advantage of knowing this?


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## Tom Urtis (Jul 15, 2008)

To me the biggest surprise is India being #5, behind Canada and Australia.

Surprising, based on population:

Population of Canada ~33.2 million
Population of Australia ~20.5 million
Population of India ~1.13 billion, which means India's population count dwarfs the combined population of Canada plus Australia.

While India has its share of classes without computers, it is also among the world's leading countries for focusing technology on its working population.



Surprising, based on internet connectivity for India's population, estimated at ~double that of Canada and Australia:

Canada 22,000,000 (source http://www.internetworldstats.com/am/ca.htm)
Australia 19,000,000 (source http://www.internetworldstats.com/stats.htm)
India 42,000,000 (source http://www.internetworldstats.com/asia/in.htm)


So, curious India still ranks behind Canada and Australia given numbers that suggest it might be under represented in the Google survey.


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## starl (Jul 15, 2008)

or.. people from India don't frequent the site often?
Or get done more in a single session?

hm - according to Admin stuff, we have 315 users who say they are located in India. And just looking at the 1st 50, not many have logged in this year.

ok - narrower search - since January 1, 2008, we had 66 members who say they are located in India log into the board; 23 in July.

so.. maybe it is representative? Of course, Bills stats are for all visitors - I'm only looking at registered members.


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## Tom Urtis (Jul 15, 2008)

Hey Tracy - -

Those membership numbers you cited were interesting, and even though there's commonly a heavier count of non-members on the site than members (as I type this for example, there are 77 people on the site, 20 of whom are registered and 57 of whom are not), I'd assume they track with the overall by-country ratio.

The India placement at #5 could be the case I guess, but it's darn curious that 20 million more internet users, as many as Canada and Australia each have, are not making up the small difference between them.   Oh well.

One thing's for sure, this site has helped a whole globe's worth of people over the years, it's definitely helped me, and you guys do a great job with the site.


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## Patience (Jul 16, 2008)

MrExcel said:


> # 1 London 247K visits



I reckon I make up half of them...

In all seriousness I reckon that 'London' might stand for 'England.' I doubt many people north of the Watford Gap would appreciate that, though...


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## MrExcel (Jul 16, 2008)

Starl...great point about the ISP, but what is really strange is that they recognize about 80 visits from three different towns named Rutland. I have no idea is this is your Rutland or not. (MapPoint says there are Rutland in VT, GA, FL, IL, IN, IA, KY, MA, ND, OH, SD, WI, TX. 3 of them must have a local ISP offering service...)

Tom - excellent population statistics. Here is one strange side fact about India... India is the leading source of people who continuously write directly to my e-mail for Excel help. Generally, I can suggest to someone that they will get faster help by posting to the board, but the folks continue to write to me. I don't know if high-speed internet has not made it beyond the major population centers and so it is easier to send an e-mail rather than browse. 

Schielrn - good memory on the map. I'll see if I can get more people to add themselves to the map. Maybe a banner or announcement in the weekly free chapter e-mail.

Bryony - keep up the good work. I can use those stats to justify more seminars in the U.K.!

Erik - Yes - only a gadget. Just passing it on for interest. Actually, the folks at the new WidGenie.com asked me to review their free online charting tool. I am talking about it on this Friday's podcast, so I was trying to find some data to chart that would be mildly interesting to the MrExcel community. When I looked at the data, it just didn't feel right.


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## Expiry (Jul 16, 2008)

Of course, the USA, UK, Canada and Australia all speak English as a first language - that means every user from the tech guys to the kid at home doing some school project, pretty much, will be speaking English all day.

I know that a lot of business people in Asia, South America and Europe will also have a great understanding of the English language, but perhaps not as many occasional users, and perhaps they wouldn't automatically visit a predominantly English speaking website. 

I know there's one section on ME for every other language on the planet, but it's bound to have a bearing on numbers from these countries.

Perhaps someone should start a Monsiour Excel or a Herr Excel, etc. I could go on.


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## MrExcel (Jul 16, 2008)

Expiry - you are absolutely right. Out of the 1.1 billion people in India, English is the first language for only 226K. 65 million speak English as a second language, and 25 million as a third language.  (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_English-speaking_population)

Bill


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## MrExcel (Jul 16, 2008)

We embedded that map in this page:

http://www.mrexcel.com/map.html


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## Greg Truby (Jul 16, 2008)

There is an interesting article in July 2008 issue of WIRED magazine on Chinglish (Chinese English) and Singlish (Singaporean English). 





			
				WIRED mag said:
			
		

> By 2020, native English speakers will make up only 15 percent of the estimated 2 billion people who will be using or learning the language.


 Normally those terms are used as pejorative terms for poor translations. But WIRED used them as valid names for new blends / evolutions of English, somewhat akin to Latin being the mother tongue of French, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese & Romanian.
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## Patience (Jul 16, 2008)

Well, I just added myself to the map. I gave my work place, not home though. I am sure the five miles won't make that much of a difference!

I did notice that if you don't move the map from its starting position, and just zoom in about a third of the way, you zoom in on Timbuktu. Which must therefore be the centre of the world, not the middle of nowhere. A common misconception, it would seem.


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## Gerald Higgins (Jul 16, 2008)

Expiry said:


> Perhaps someone should start a Monsiour Excel or a Herr Excel, etc. I could go on.


 
You ???

I doubt it !!!


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## Case_Germany (Jul 16, 2008)

Hi,

the map is a super idea so I added myself to the map. My english is not good , *but* I feel very well in this forum from the first day of post threads here. 

If you ever come to Germany - let us drink some beer or wine. 

Case_Germany


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## schielrn (Jul 16, 2008)

Does anyone know how to remove a marker from the map?  My first try I was zoomed out too far.


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## starl (Jul 16, 2008)

schielrn said:


> Does anyone know how to remove a marker from the map?  My first try I was zoomed out too far.



Probably Admin only...


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## Stormseed (Jul 17, 2008)

erik.van.geit said:


> Belgium only 10th
> O, yes, I did post less in the past months


 
that was hillarious


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## Stormseed (Jul 17, 2008)

> I don't know if high-speed internet has not made it beyond the major population centers and so it is easier to send an e-mail rather than browse.


 
Hi Bill

I would like to add here that the Hi-Speed Broadband & DSL is available to only 25% of the area in India. Rest of India is still on dial-ups or cable. Cities like Bombay, Bangalore, Chennai, Calcutta, New Delhi, Hyderabad & some small parts of the metros more are equipped with Hi-Speed Internet Connectivity.


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