
You can expect two things from a new Google product:
- It'll be in beta for a long time
- It won't work on a Mac for awhile
Google Analytics, a free website traffic analysis tool from Google,
doesn't work in Safari. Actually, that's not entirely correct. You can log in using Safari, and you can see most of the application, however if you try to view reports showing the analysis of your website (kinda the whole point of the tool) then you're out of luck, Safari user. Sure, the service is free and it works with Firefox (or any other Mozilla based browser) but I use Safari almost exclusively, and I bet I'm not the only Mac user like that.
What is the deal, Google, don't you love Mac users?
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Gabriel Radic said 8:57AM on 11-18-2005
Try to force a reflow of the page, e.g. by hitting "Cmd +" or "Cmd -" to resize the text. The charts will appear.
Charts also appear if you invoke them via the contextual red (^) buttons next to list elements.
Or use Firefox.
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Jason Santa Maria said 8:34AM on 11-18-2005
Surprisingly, it's not actually a beta.
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Geir-Tore Lindsve said 8:37AM on 11-18-2005
Dang! And I signed up for a Google Analytics account yesterday, but haven't tried it yet. Well, well, could always use Opera or Firefox for this matter till it's fixed.
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Jer said 8:36AM on 11-18-2005
Oddly enough I found that if you run a little javascript bookmark to expose DIVs the graphs show up.
Not sure where I got the original bookmark script, but maybe this one will work:
http://www.web-graphics.com/mtarchive/000300.php
-Jerry
http://www.evconvert.com/
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Andrew Holding said 9:17AM on 11-18-2005
Hmm.. Works for me fine in Panther.
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Jonathan said 9:34AM on 11-18-2005
Doesn't work for me for Safari, Tiger here. I read about this yesterday and signed up, but I too got the black screen. Sad...
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Brock Batsell said 9:36AM on 11-18-2005
What's really strange in my mind is that the code GA is based off of, Urchin, whose graphs were pretty much identical, worked perfectly in Safari.
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LD said 9:38AM on 11-18-2005
Waaaaa! Waaaaaa!
I want to only use Apple stuff and use their inferior browser and Google won't support it.
Waaaaa! Waaaaa!
This means Google hates Mac users because it will work on my Mac, just not the way I want it to.
Waaaa! Waaaaa!
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Scott McNulty said 9:53AM on 11-18-2005
Oh, LD, how can one come up with a response to such a cogent rebuttal to a post?
Thanks for the insight, it has really made me rethink my position.
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superjeff said 9:56AM on 11-18-2005
I'm getting a little tired of hearing that this site or that site doesn't work in this browser or that. All websites will have their problems with specific browsers and OSs. It's a pain, but let's just deal with it and use another browser please. And yes, the "only works with IE" is a legit ccomplaint, but it's been said already. Let's move on.
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LD said 9:56AM on 11-18-2005
It's as intelligent and thought provoking as your original post.
You come off as a whining Mac elitist just for the sake of whining. You can use the took perfectly fine, you just stubbornly won't. Why should Google make their site work on a browser that only works on a small percentage of desktops on only a single platform? It makes much more sense to ensure it works on IE and Firefox. IE because it's on like 90% of dekstops and Firefox because it's cross-platform.
What you should be asking is why Apple hates you so much that they came up with their own browser, thereby furthering web developers headaches, rather than stick with a Mozilla core.
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Scott McNulty said 10:07AM on 11-18-2005
LD, how do you know I stubbornly refused to use a different browser? I did, in fact, use Firefox, but I don't think I should have to. Safari is one of the more standards compliant browsers out there, so why should I be forced to use something else?
Following your logic Google should only make things that work in Internet Explorer since Firefox's tiny marketshare really doesn't matter.
Futhermore, waaaa!
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LD said 10:14AM on 11-18-2005
Whining elitist.
You missed my point entirely about why Firefox should be supported. It is standards based and works across many platforms.
Safari only works on Macs.
As a project manager I wouldn't worry too much about supporting Safari. If it works, bonus. If not, I will focus on Firefox and IE compatability.
This is the same reason Apple won't get traction into the business world. They are an island, and sometimes on an island you are limited in what you can do. They don't want to play with the big boys, which is fine, but there are consequences. One is that their browser doesn't work as well (on as many sites) as Firefox or IE, another is that IE managers won't choose to paint themselves into a corner with Apple only hardware.
Why does Apple hate its user so much, Scotty?
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Gabriel Radic said 4:59AM on 11-19-2005
Try to force a reflow of the page, e.g. by hitting "Cmd +" or "Cmd -" to resize the text. The charts will appear.
Charts also appear if you invoke them via the contextual red (^) buttons next to list elements.
Or use Firefox.
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Scott McNulty said 10:29AM on 11-18-2005
I love a good flamewar, and this is my first in awhile, so I might be a little rusty.
It stills seems to me, following your logic, that 'managers' shouldn't care about Firefox either. IE has such a HUGE percentage of the market that you might as well just target them, and use all the cool features that IE has to offer. As for cross platform, why worry about other platforms since Windows is so clearly dominant. It makes no sense to waste your time on, what, 5% of the market?
As for Apple not gaining traction in the Enterprise...it is. Sure, not in shockingly high numbers but every little bit helps. And why is it gaining ground? The price points for both Xserves and Xserve RAIDs are really good, and they support so many open standards it is sickening. That's not really relevant to this discussion but I couldn't resist throwing it in, for free!
Now, let's talk about me being an elitist Mac user, whining or not. I'm typing this very comment on a ThinkPad (running Windows XP of all things!!). My day job consists of sys admining 15 Windows 2003 boxes, and supporting a number of Windows based web developers. I know Macs and PC's; both have their places, their strengths, and their weaknesses. I personally prefer Macs for my own use, but I wouldn't hesitate recommending Windows for a variety of uses.
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LD said 10:34AM on 11-18-2005
*sigh*
You aren't good at this. You have completely ignored everything I've said about why one should support Firefox. You've just dismissed it out of hand because you know it makes perfect sense. Not only that, but to accept those reasons would hurt your argument that Safari should be supported.
This isn't a flame war, I'm just tired of reading all these posts about how such and such doesn't work on a Mac. It gets even worse when it really does work on a Mac but just doesn't work on their browser or some other minor point. I guess news was slow this morning.
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Scott McNulty said 10:39AM on 11-18-2005
So your point about Firefox is that it is cross platform, so developers should support it, correct?
My point is, why bother supporting platforms other than Windows?
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LD said 11:04AM on 11-18-2005
Why would you make such a silly point? That is not "my logic" as you have tried to repeatedly imply. No matter how many times you say it, it won't make it true.
I think web developers should develop with cross platform compatability in mind. I've said this since my first reply. You have ignored it until now. Then you have taken it to a completely illogical conclusion by saying "only IE!" when no one but yourself has said that.
Realistically, there are two browsers that developers should ensure their site works in, IE and Firefox/Mozilla. That is the minimum, anything above that is a bonus. That reaches the widest audience.
If you want to go off into your little fantasy land and invent arguments to have with yourself, go for it. If you want to discuss this then let's do that. Until you want to actually discuss this, I'll leave you with the following:
Oh, Scott McNulty, how can one come up with a response to such a cogent rebuttal to a post?
Thanks for the insight, it has really made me rethink my position.
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henrrrik said 11:12AM on 11-18-2005
I haven't looked into what is causing it, but I'd be surprised if fixing the Safari problem in Google Analytics took one of Google's engineers more than an hour.
Quite a few web developers use macs, especially the early adopter types that are likely to test a service like GA, so I think it would make a lot of sense to for them to sort it out.
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The Badger said 11:16AM on 11-18-2005
ANYWAY, back to the original question. :-)
I have a friend who recently got hired at Google. He's a Mac user (and lover), Linux user and PC user too.
When I asked why the dearth of Mac compatible services/tools, he said they have no Mac programmers. And that they really want them. At the rate Google is hiring, I'm not sure I can believe this, but this was his opinion.
He told me that he wanted to request a new Powerbook from work, but everyone said they would expect him to start programming for the Mac. Apparently it's that sparse there.
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