A comprehensive guide to the basics of Google Analytics. This resource for beginners explores the fundamentals of digital tracking, the Analytics account structure, the new reporting interface, and key concepts behind meaningful reporting.
In the year since I wrote it, my guide to building a Raspberry Pi-powered terrarium has been read over 15,000 times. I’ve now moved it to a new website: Tom’s Carnivores, at tomscarnivores.com. I’ve been fascinated by Venus flytraps and pitcher plants since I was little, and I plan to build this site into a modern resource for today’s growers. It’s also an exercise in modern web development - I’ve opted for a JAMstack approach, using the static site generator Hugo with npm as my build tool.
This tutorial explores the Content Grouping feature in Google Analytics, running through common use-cases, the various ways it can be implemented, the difference between content grouping and custom dimensions, and solutions to some of the most frequently encountered problems.
During research for my feature on remastered games for Polygon, I was lucky enough to speak with Frank Cifaldi, Head of Restoration at Digital Eclipse. Only a tiny part of our conversation was included in that feature, and so I‘ve presented it here in full for the benefit of those who are interested in the subject. TB: You mentioned to The Verge that video games occupy a unique space among other forms of media in that they are tied to the technology they were originally made for.
GIFs are one of the oldest image formats on the web. The Graphics Interchange Format was first introduced in 1987, and advances in browser technology in the intervening years have reduced the number of scenarios in which GIF is the most suitable image format. In general, animated graphics are one of the format’s few remaining strongholds, which is ironic given that this isn’t something the format was designed for: The Graphics Interchange Format is not intended as a platform for animation, even though it can be done in a limited way.
Whether you’re growing tropical plants or keeping reptiles as pets, an electronic controller can provide a more stable environment than you could ever hope to achieve using regular timers. By integrating your terrarium into the Internet-of-Things using a Raspberry Pi, it’s possible to create a highly-extensible system which offers automation, data visualisation, alerts, and pretty much anything you or your pets could want.
This feature explores remastered and ported video games, and is based on my interviews with developers at Naughty Dog, Bluepoint Games, Nixxes Software, Aspyr Media, and Digital Eclipse. Using The Last of Us Remastered as a case study, the piece explores the unique challenges inherent to the reproduction of interactive experiences.
This comprehensive guide to technical SEO is aimed primarily at web developers, and walks readers through the fundamental principles of organic search optimisation. The article covers crawl accessibility, indexation diagnostics, canonicalisation, multi-regional and multilingual setups, link profile maintenance and more.