When to release Software?

Posted 2015-08-06 in Programming by Johann.

I thought about when is a good time to release software and what I came up with is this:

The best time to release software is when you’re confident you can release a better version within a short time period.

The short time period could be as high as a week but probably shouldn’t be much longer than that.

Note that the initial quality of what you’re releasing does not play a role in my definition. I’ve launched very bad looking websites and buggy software. Not a problem if you can release a new version quickly that’s better in some aspect.

In terms of how to make software better, don’t think “adding features.” Features don’t automatically make software better. Instead, make something easier to use by removing options, make the product faster, improve your tracking, add content or – if you’re out of ideas, run an A/B test.

BTW: If you’re interested in the Groovy programming language, check out my Groovy Programming blog.

Google Analytics ga.js Tracking Best Practices

Posted 2010-09-08 in JavaScript by Johann.

1. _gat._anonymizeIp()
2. Google Analytics Search Engine Extension.
3. _trackPageview(location.pathname) if you don’t use query parameters. _trackPageview(location.pathname.replace(/;jsessionid=[^?]+/,'') if you use session IDs. Over time, a lot of junk ends up in the query string and that might skew content reports.
4. Track positive and negative goals (anything that means the goal can’t be reached) in one goal set and track the positive goals one more time in another goal set. For media.io, a negative goal would be that the file couldn’t be converted.
5. _setDetectFlash(false) because Flash is dead.
6. Google’s async ga.js syntax is stupid (but inevitably so). Use the _gaq.push(function() { … }); syntax.
7. Any interaction in a form should probably be tracked using virtual page views instead of event tracking.
8. Always use _createTracker('UA-1234-12', 't') once in the page and _getTrackerByName('t') in event handlers. _createTracker should be used only once.
9. Set up a second profile for each domain that filters only search traffic (or whatever traffic you prefer). You can’t use segments when comparing date ranges with a filter and that is a workaround.
10. Create a “branded traffic” segment for search terms that contain your brand name. Keep in mind people are creative when typing names so you will need to dig into your keywords first. For media.io, the segment filters media\W*[1i]o.
11. Create an “non-branded traffic” segment for search terms that don’t contain your brand name (see 10).
12. _setAllowAnchor(true) so that you can link by using anchors instead of query strings. Can avoid duplicate content issues.
13. _setVisitorCookieTimeout(5270400000). This sets the persistent GA cookie expiration to 61 days instead of the default two years. I’ve never seen any substantial activity past two months.

Colors of Search Engines

Posted 2009-10-09 in WWW by Johann.

Ask

Bing

Google

Yahoo!

media.io: Convert Audio Formats

Posted 2009-08-13 in WWW by Johann.

I’ve been working on a new application since July and here’s a small preview.

Did you ever download music in the wrong format?

• Someone sent you music in AC3 but your player only plays MP3 and Ogg Vorbis?
• You have a lossless format like FLAC that you would like to convert to Ogg Vorbis?
• Your band needs a few low-quality MP3s for your website?

I am working on a site that lets you convert audio formats online.

Titled media.io, you upload your audio files, select the target format and the conversion quality, wait for a few seconds and then download the converted files.

Like all of my sites, media.io is designed to be highly boring plain effective.

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