This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2010, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
Note: The View From Here is a weekly column shared by editors of the Salt Lake Tribune.
Ever visited the Tribune online? We know where you clicked.
Now, don't go reaching for your tinfoil hat just yet. We have no idea who you are, what you look like, your social security number, or the names of your cats.
Like every website out there, we collect anonymous data about what gets clicked on. This allows us to see what stories are popular, how long people visit the site, and what brought them there.
We've been collecting the same sets for about 6 years, which allows us to draw some fun conclusions about Internet habits. Here is a composite sketch of the Tribune's online presence.
The most popular stories in 6 years
As with most sites, The Tribune's home page is the most popular landing spot. After that, obituaries come in second, and sports is usually third. Here are the most popular headlines since we started tracking. The results might surprise you — the most popular stories aren't always the biggest news:
The browsers you use to see sltrib.com
In August of 2005, Microsoft Internet Explorer dominated, but in the same month in 2010, it shares the web browser space a little more humbly. A look at the Top 5 over the years:
2005
| Microsoft Internet Explorer | Mozilla Firefox | Sfri | Other |
2010
| Microsoft Internet Explorer | Mozilla Firefox | Safari | AOL | Oth |
5
The number of pages an average visitor clicks on during a visit.
Where outside traffic comes from
Most visitors to sltrib.com get there because they have it bookmarked or typed it. However, we get a large block of traffic from other sites. The top sites sending us traffic over the past 6 years:
More Utahns are visiting us than ever
The biggest block of visitors to the site have always been Utahns. Over time, though, that percentage has grown.
2005
| Utah | Calif. | Tx | Co | Wa | Rest of the world |
2010
| Utah | Calif. | Tx | Co | Wa | Rest of the world |
Comments keep coming
Love 'em or hate 'em, online comments are a big part of the Tribune's online presence. In August, 50,000 comments were posted — an average of more than a comment per minute, every minute of every day.
Traffic continues to grow
Every day, The Salt Lake Tribune gets roughly 600,000 page views — when we have big news, that number can grow to a million. The site continues to grow — last month was the biggest overall month in the history of the site. More importantly, traffic to sltrib.com has doubled in the past four years.
How long people spend on the site
Most users spend less than 5 minutes at the site. Some, though, spend more than an hour reading our work.
| Less than 1 minute | 1-5 mins. | 5-10 mins. | 10-30 mins. | 30-60 mins | More than 1 hour |
Josh Awtry is an assistant managing editor at The Salt Lake Tribune. If you don't follow him on Twitter, now's a great time to start.