The cat is out of the bag, Adaptive Path‘s top secret web application will be a tool for bloggers to better track traffic to their site. But wait! Shaun Inman is already working hard on a new traffic monitoring application, named Mint!
Could Inman and Veen be going up against each other head-to-head? Or is it the same application? Or will Mint be released before Adaptive Path has their party? Who will win the battle of the snazziest traffic-monitoring buzzword-filled web application?
Whoa baby, as soon as this post went live I’ve got all sorts of people coming out from the woodwork telling me more about the Adaptive Path application. Here’s what I know so far:
It’s called “Measure Map”. MeasureMap.com isn’t up yet, however a quick WHOIS lookup reveals that it’s registered to Lane Becker, Adaptive Pather extraordinaire.
It’s written in Ruby. Why is this important? Because that means it won’t be something you “download and install” on your own web server like Shortstat or Mint. Ruby is too new a language to have people figure out how to install it themselves, therefore I’m pretty sure that Measure Map will be a hosted application, unlike Mint. I don’t think I like that aspect much.
As with all pre-release software info, take these with a grain of salt. I could be talking out of my ass here, or I could be spot-on, who knows.
About Mike Rundle
That’s easy. Inman will win because he has the smaller team and he likes to Get Real. Also, Adaptive Path has too many people with too many titles so they are doomed for failure.
I’ve seen some beta screenshots of Mint, and it looks fantastic. I’m not so sure how AP can top it, especially since the previous versions of Mint (aka, Shortstat) are so widely-used and praised by the web community.
Damn, I thought AP was going to come out with a kick-ass, standards-compliant content management system. Oh well.
I’ve been beta testing Mint, and I can say first hand it kicks lots of ass. (Also puts ShortStat to shame).
Ruby and Ajax creates buzz which will end up being unwarranted. So after the surge, Inman will be on top. That is, unless APs solution is so out-of-the-box that it blows us away.
Competition is good regardless.
I’m really starting to despise the fact that people think if they program something with Ruby, they’re automatically cool. I use ShortStat, and I’m not about to clear my stats just because somebody’s using Ruby to make a stat tracker.
Update! I got a hit in my refferal logs yesterday from http://www.shauninman.com/mint/ . I’m not sure if this is supersecret or what, but I thought it very odd that there were a few deleted parts that are available in the source. I managed to do a little “hacking” and entered my email address in the hidden form, but it’s not functional yet.
One other thing which I think should be stated on why the fact that Adaptive Path is using Rails is so important: all Rails applications receive instant hype, no matter how trivial they are. I’m not saying this to bash Rails, of course; I think it’s an excellent web framework (though for some, “getting real” may mean simply implementing a Rails-like MVC framework of their own in a language with wider support and more standard installations). I’m just pointing out that Rails has a massive, decentralized marketing machine behind it and therefore Rails apps are always more likely to get fantastic reviews right out of the gate.
I wonder if Doug is designing the app for Adaptive Path because that’s where the real cage match action lies: Shaun “Minty Fresh” Inman vs. Doug “Stop Design” Bowman.
I received the pleasure of seeing a live demo of MeasureMap at the Ajax Summit a few months back.
I haven’t seen a demo of Mint, but like you I’ve seen the screen shots. It looks great. It appears to be a large evolutionary leap for ShortStat (which is fine and fantastic).
Noting this assumption, and what I’ve seen of Measure Map, I’d feel rather confident in saying these two applications are quite literally like comparing Maps to Mint. Two completely different things.
I know I’ll use Mint. I use ShortStat religiously. Mint will be another incredibly useful tool in the ol’ belt.
MeasureMaps is going to be something I not only use, but something I set as my homepage and spend 8 hours a day toying with! It looks like a ton of fun and seems to expose all the things I wish I always knew about my blog but no statistics tool could tell me.
Remember, AP are the “experience” guys. I think they’ve designed a very immersive experience into MeasureMaps, independent of whatever they wrote it in.
* Note: I saw MeasureMaps in “guided-demo” mode while in a very early stage months ago. It could be completely different now, or it could of been a completely scripted farce. Nevertheless, I’m excited about it.
They’ll both be great because they have great people working on them, but Jeff Veen towers over the competition. ;)
… zing! ;)
Mint will most likely will be a hosted service.
You will have to include a javascript which points to a php script hosted at his site. A key (which most likely has to be bought) is given as a parameter with including the javascript so the script can tell whose stats have to be updated.
You can see this in the script: http://haveamint.com/mint/mint.js.php, in the path variable.
Sorry Hans, you’ve got it all wrong. Mint is not a hosted service and that key serves an entirely different purpose.
Hans – From the horse’s mouth ;)
Guess i was jumping to conclusions.
Anyway, can’t wait for it to come online.
I am the only person on the planet who has had the honor of getting to play with both and they both serve their niche well and both will be wildly successful.
Both are well-designed products.