Awstats Add to favorites (estimated)

[kdb003]

I know awstats estimates this figure based on how many times people access the favicon.ico file, and the statistic is way off. I am wondering what the range of numbers is. So if you use awstats could you please post your numbers so I can get a better feel for what it actually means. thanks.

For example:
filleritem.com
Add to favorites (estimated)2871 / 1966 Visitors146 %

[NetMidWest]

If I read your post correctly, you are wanting a percentage of error for awstats - add to favorites. There isn't one.

The statistic is useless; anything that clears the cache should clear the favicon, and the next time they open the favorites it will reload. It may drop out of the cache if they do not visit or use the favorites much, only to load again later. Add to that bots that may attempt to access the favicon (there is a whole search engine based on favicons, I forget the url offhand) and perhaps your own browser checking for the file, and you get stats like you posted - 146% of your visitors are adding you to the favorites list.

If you are using a 'Bookmark Us' script you might be able to isolate the access to it, and get a better idea.

Hope this helps.

[kdb003]

I think I need to reword the post a little. I am looking for other people's statistics so I can get a better feel for what this stat means.

[Refrozen]

Um, look at the source for AWStats, it does the 'add to favorites' based on REPEAT VISITORS not Favicons.

[ferret77]

really i was always under the impression it did by requests for icon thing

so if some visits your site

then types in the name directly its added to favorites?

[zhisede]

link from sf.net

http://awstats.sourceforge.net/docs/awstats_glossary.html

Add To Favourites:
This value, available in the "miscellanous chart", reports an estimated indicator that can be used to have an idea of the number of times a visitor has added your web site into its favourite bookmarks.
The technical rules for that is the following formula:
Number of Add to Favourites = round((x+y) / r)
where
x = Number of hits made by IE browsers for "/anydir/favicon.ico", with a referer field not defined, and with no 404 error code
y = Number of hits made by IE browsers for "/favicon.ico", with a referer field not defined, with or without 404 error code
r = Ratio of hits made by IE browsers compared to hits made by all browsers (r <= 1)

As you can see in formula, only IE is used to count reliable "add", the "Add to favourites" for other browsers are estimated using ratio of other browsers usage compared to ratio of IE usage. The reason is that only IE do a hit on favicon.ico nearly ONLY when a user add the page to its favourites. The other browsers make often hits on this file also for other reasons so we can't count one "hit" as one "add" since it might be a hit for another reason.
AWStats differentiate also hits with error and not to avoid counting multiple hits made recursively in upper path when favicon.ico file is not found in deeper directory of path.
Note that this number is just an indicator that is in most case higher than true value. The reason is that even IE browser sometimes make hit on favicon without an "Add to favourites" action by a user.

[idolw]

so if AwStats numbers of Add to favourites are correct, my site is added to favourites by 23% of visitors.
Sounds incredibly high to me.

[rosytoes]

mine is 25%, I think that's about right. You can also cross check it with stats under the Referers section. If your Add to Favorites % is high, then you should get most of your traffic from Direct address / Bookmarks.

[Hemidex]

It sounds strange that this should be based upon repeat visitors. My site has an estimated 58% of its users adding it to their favorites. However, I have under 10% repeat visitors at the moment (relatively new site)...

[adamovic]

Repited visitor is better measure. Favicon.ico is not appropriate since Firefox read it always AFAIK. BTW, for me AwStat shows 153 / 852 Visitors 17.9 %

[Jean-Luc]

This problem is not related to the way Firefox reads /favicon.ico, but it comes from the growing number of users of the new version of the Google toolbar.

More details and a solution in AWStats - Add to favorites (http://www.internetofficer.com/awstats/add-to-favorites.html).

Jean-Luc

[D@xtra]

I ran accross a patch on google for the favicon problem with awstats. I cant remember where it was because I didn't bookmark it, but if you can communicate with yout host, you cah have them look into it.

Ahhh,, I found it...

it is here (didn't want to post live link):

_http://www.internetofficer.com/awstats/add-to-favorites.html

[michael11]

Where do I find this awstats.pl file if I have cpanel and my host has awstats already on board?

Furthermore does it only apply to awstats 6.5? I have 6.4 on my server.

I ran accross a patch on google for the favicon problem with awstats. I cant remember where it was because I didn't bookmark it, but if you can communicate with yout host, you cah have them look into it.

Ahhh,, I found it...

it is here (didn't want to post live link):

_http://www.internetofficer.com/awstats/add-to-favorites.html

[Jean-Luc]

Hi,

You could inform your host about the issue and ask them to apply the patch. This would be to the benefit of all their clients.

Jean-Luc

[fcmisc]

My figure is 47.6%, which seems a bit implausible.

[bmorejon]

My is 140% :(

Does anybody know this issue?