Trackers keep track of and report to you more detailed data about the page being tracked, such as total visits, visits by time of day, date, etc., what browsers were being used, what domains they are coming from, even what pages they are coming to your page from (referring pages). Some trackers can even give you the IP address of the computers that your page has been viewed from (which may be a privacy concern for some users).
Almost all page-based counters and trackers require you to insert something on the page(s) to be counted or tracked. That may be a graphic, a link, script, or a Javascript. One problem with this is that most of these additions will be broken or removed when you edit the page with Netscape, so plan to use Dreamweaver or another form of site editing when putting a counter on your page.
All the services listed here were free as of 12/12/01, but many offer additional 'premium' services for a fee.
CounterBot.com: http://counter.bloke.com/index.html
Example at: http://www.lehigh.edu/computing/web/building.html
Counter only, but multiple styles available. Javascript powered.
Ultimate Counter: http://www.ultimatecounter.com/
Example at: http://www.lehigh.edu/helpdesk/docs/eudora/setup.html
Apppearance is very configurable-- you can choose any one of hundreds of
styles of counter digits, but you must save and upload those digit files to
your directory. (Also can be configured as a clock or random number generator.)
If you go to the configuration page and choose View Your Statistics, you
can see a bar chart of daily accesses over the last 30 days. Javascript powered.
CQ Counter.com: http://cqcounter.com/
Example at: http://www.lehigh.edu/helpdesk/netscape7/composer.html
Click on the CQ counter icon on the page to see the statistics for total
and day/week/month uses, browser information, referrals, etc. Keeps and shows
detailed stats for the last 20 visitors as well. Javascript powered.
Nedstat Basic: http://www.nedstat.com/f35e34_index.htm
Tiny checkmark graphic to be placed on the page: click on that graphic to
see the stats.
Stats include a 'forecast' of the number of visits for the day, as well
as bar chart of statistics; use menu on the side of the screen to access,
daily, weekly, time, referrer (how), and browser (with what) information.
Works with javascript and non-javascript browsing.
Sitemeter: http://sm6.sitemeter.com/default.asp?action=home
example on: http://tulgey.browser.net/~jenne/krakow/
Provides a counter on the page, in various styles, including an unadorned
text version.
Sends you email once a week with the statistics, starting with simple totals.
You can read the stats off the email, or click on the included link or the
counter on the page to see the statistics on a web page, which gives stats
for daily, weekly, monthly and total numbers of visits. Gives details about
each visit including 'time spent'.
Can be used to track the entire site, apparently. Javascript and non-javascript
versions of the script are available.
bcentral FastCounter: http://www.bcentral.com/products/fc/default.asp
example on:
http://www.lehigh.edu/%7Ewww/make_www/Dreamweaver4/dream4.html
Microsoft product, very content-restrictive licensing; terms and conditions
not viewable in Netscape;
Displays a counter on the page. Requires you to set up or link a Microsoft.NET
account to access the statistics. Javascript not required.
GoStats.com: http://gostats.com/free/
Counter-- click on counter to get stats, but the stats are only viewable
in IE. Last 20 days, country, browser, OS, and screen size stats; year trend,
etc. Appears to be both Javascript and non-Javascript-enabled.
Yahoo: Web Access Counters: http://dir.yahoo.com/Computers_and_Internet/Internet/World_Wide_Web/Programming/Access_Counters/