Google Analytics is a powerful tool that tracks and analyzes website traffic for informed marketing decisions.
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_gali
Used by Google Analytics to determine which links on a page are being clicked
30 seconds
_ga_
ID used to identify users
2 years
_gid
ID used to identify users for 24 hours after last activity
24 hours
_gat
Used to monitor number of Google Analytics server requests when using Google Tag Manager
1 minute
__utmb
Used to distinguish new sessions and visits. This cookie is set when the GA.js javascript library is loaded and there is no existing __utmb cookie. The cookie is updated every time data is sent to the Google Analytics server.
30 minutes after last activity
__utmc
Used only with old Urchin versions of Google Analytics and not with GA.js. Was used to distinguish between new sessions and visits at the end of a session.
End of session (browser)
__utmz
Contains information about the traffic source or campaign that directed user to the website. The cookie is set when the GA.js javascript is loaded and updated when data is sent to the Google Anaytics server
6 months after last activity
__utmv
Contains custom information set by the web developer via the _setCustomVar method in Google Analytics. This cookie is updated every time new data is sent to the Google Analytics server.
2 years after last activity
__utmx
Used to determine whether a user is included in an A / B or Multivariate test.
18 months
_ga
ID used to identify users
2 years
__utmt
Used to monitor number of Google Analytics server requests
10 minutes
_gac_
Contains information related to marketing campaigns of the user. These are shared with Google AdWords / Google Ads when the Google Ads and Google Analytics accounts are linked together.
90 days
__utma
ID used to identify users and sessions
2 years after last activity
It’s that time of year, where bracketology reigns supreme and the cry around the nation is “Win or Go Home!” And we here at ComicMix are not immune to that siren call– although we’re putting our own spin on it.
I cannot believe that Girl Genius lost to anything…
Maybe their fans don’t care much about ComicMix?
Unfortunately, this is contest is likely to be a measure not of webcomic quality but of how desperate the webcomic artists are for traffic. This site gets less traffic than most of the webcomics being voted on, so most of the voters will be people sent here by the webcomics The more popular webcomics won’t bother sending the site traffic, but the smaller and more mediocre webcomics have more to gain by sending their few readers here to vote.
Consequently, this vote unfortunately ends up measuring not the quality or popularity of the webcomics so much as the desperation of the webcomic artists for traffic.
While that may be the case for some of the comics, Defenestrator, it’s not the case for all of them.
Case in point, ErfWorld. I’d say its art and storytelling are on par with some of the bigger names in this contest, such as Penny Arcade or Questionable Content, and according to the creators they were already getting a decent amount of traffic – they’re not “desperate for traffic” by any means. (Nor, I suspect, are Axe Cop, Gunnerkrigg Court, Dork Tower, or many of the other comics in this matchup – though I wouldn’t be surprised to find out that there are one or two webcomics listed that do fit that criterion, considering there are some on this list that I’ve never heard of before.)
So, no, I don’t think it’s a case of the webcomic creators being desperate for traffic, but more a case of whether or not they’ve heard of this site before and how interested their fans are in seeing them win this tournament.
After all, you can be a fan of a webcomic without caring how many awards it wins – and while I’d be pleasantly surprised if Erfworld won, I wouldn’t stop reading or claim that it was “RUINED FOREVER” just because it didn’t win ;)