Champion3
07/24/10 06:18 PM
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How do most viewers find the maps that they view? Just right now, there are 1188 visitors and only 3 users. That seems like a lot to me. I'm curious how these people get here and find the maps. Are most frequent visitors who stay current by mostly looking at the latest maps and the queue? Do they come in from links like Google searches, or what other kinds of sites link in besides search engines? So basically what drives the most views here? And also, is this site getting more popular?
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kjfitz
07/25/10 12:18 PM
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I'm convinced a lot of the viewers are bots. Go to the forum and look at what they are reading. It doesn't make any sense to be reading what they are. There just can't be that many people interested in old posts at all hours every day all year long.
For a while VGT came up in the top few results in almost any search for a named location like a European church or obscure tourist site. Same with image searches. I haven't noticed that as much anymore. Maybe Google changed their algorithm.
I think the site is slowly becoming more popular though. I think there are more sub-groups of people monitoring the site for specific topics. I know the celeb home following is huge. Just look at the top viewed categories and top favorites. Also there is a much smaller roller-coaster fan group based on the pic stats. Military stuff has a following too but that may have tapered off.
kjfitz
Virtual Globetrotting Moderator
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Pdunn
07/25/10 05:44 PM
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I like to enter "Virtual Globetrotting" in the search field of this site: http://spy.appspot.com/
It scours the social networks for any relevant posts and reports back. It really gives you a feel for what it is those "sub groups" are interested in.
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Champion3
07/28/10 03:52 AM
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A few more questions, if I may.
What was different about "Lorne Abony's house?" It was deleted twice with the second explanation being "lawyer request." I'm curious what complaints people have, and who has these complaints. I sometimes wonder if these people see that their house is posted on a website and how they feel about that. Obviously, most who would write the site would not be happy. Could you share some info or a story, I often wonder about that.
Also, could there be a section for privacy-request deleted maps? searching is inefficient.
Thanks!
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Champion3
07/28/10 05:33 AM
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also, I read that this site was created by Bing. Is that true? And what, if anything, is being done to promote it? I'm inquisitive tonight.
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kjfitz
07/28/10 12:10 PM
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Our policy page ha the following:
Quote:
If your private property is listed on the website and you wish to have it removed, we can scrub all personal information from a post (removing the location, city, and links to the real map page) -- please email the admins (no threatening letters necessary).
If you see a home with something like [location hidden for privacy reasons] it means we received a request compliant with the policy above. We respect everyone's request for privacy. Some are OK with just hiding all location info, others want their names and thumbnail purged from the site. I don't think nic plans to have posts with hidden locations search-able or clumped together. We realize there are no legal reasons for us to delete this info but after discussion have agreed it is "the right thing to do."
There were some angry letters in the beginning but once we posted a policy most requests are civil. Again, for privacy reasons I don't feel comfortable sharing the details of those requests.
As for Bing, we'd be interested in seeing where it was stated that we are affiliated or started by bing so that we could correct them. nic started and runs the site as a hobby. This site is not affiliated with any company. Were it affiliated with Bing it would be highly unusual to have off-site links to Yahoo and Google.
I can't speak to the promotion strategies.
kjfitz
Virtual Globetrotting Moderator
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Champion3
07/28/10 01:53 PM
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thanks!
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nic
07/28/10 01:54 PM
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Thanks for your interest Champion3.
VGT sees about 15-30,000 real (human) visitors a day, about 2/3 of which come from search engines. The others come from links from other sites or are returning visitors. Traffic has steadily increased each month over the last few years.
We generally receive 5-10 "privacy requests" a month, sometimes angry and often from a lawyer -- people who are concerned that their home photo is clickable to reveal their physical address. While we are not legally obliged to, we will enable a "privacy flag", as Kevin mentions, on the posting, so no physical location information is leaked from the page. 95% of the people who contact us are happy with this action. If one of your postings is was removed due to "lawyer request" or something similar, it means they were not satisfied by the "privacy flag" and we chose to remove the posting entirely.
We are not in any way associated with Google, Bing or Yahoo. I run the site, with the tremendous help of all of the moderators, in my free time as a hobby.
Glad to have you as part of the community!
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Champion3
07/29/10 08:17 PM
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Thanks for all the information and for making the site so interactive.
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