Who reads this blog........

I have never done this before: today I decided to check on who my visitors are and which posts have been the most read so far since my starting this site in January, 2006. I am in a way, very surprised with the results that my Google Analytics gives for that period of the last four years:

I am not surprised that those from the USA are the number one and main visitors to this blog - I have known this since the start of this blog and that is why I had to include a US of A 'label' on the site; but I am very surprised that people from the Arab world are not that interested in reading or knowing about Hadhramout. Arabs are not only least interested about here; they do too, spend very little time on this site; it is not that because I write in English - this blog has a Google translation tool and easily translates to Arabic. I am surprised that the UAE comes 3rd in my list of visitors and Saudi Arabia stands 8th in the countries list; maybe because there is a large community of foreigners in both countries. Studying the list closely, I realize that the more advanced a country is with the Internet or economically, the more people visit this site from those countries. Jordanians, Moroccans, Bahraranis and Qataris are my regular readers too. While: Algerians, Tunisians, Libyans, Syrians, Sudanese, Mauritanians and Iraqis are the rarest here. Yemen is rated as 2nd, overall, after the USA, with the most visitors; but that would include friends, relatives and colleagues - so, I haven't taken that seriously. Latin Americans, rarely visit this blog; while, from sub-Saharan Africa, Kenyans and South Africans are the main visitors.

In numbers, for the last four years, I have had most visitors: 1st from the US; 2nd from the UAE; 3rd from the UK; 4th from Canada; 5th from Malaysia; and 6th from Australia. People from these countries have spent longer too - at least 1.4 minutes on average - on this site than people from other places. Many, from European countries, do, too, regularly visit this blog. Those from the UAE, on average, spend longest on the blog - almost 2.30 minutes per visit; followed by Indonesians who spend almost two minutes per visit. My other main visitors come from India, Singapore, France, the Philippines and Germany. By region, most readers come here from North America, Europe, Western and Eastern Asia - in that order.

And what have people mostly been reading from this blog? The most popular posts have been: Once Upon A Time In Hadhramout, followed by Khor Al'Mukalla, and third is Yemen: The Ultimate Tourist Destination; I am surprised that this post about Somalia was the 4th most read and even more surprising is this post about making sesame oil which ranks as the 5th most read. Knowing what people like reading here, helps in planning and deciding what to post.

I am not surprised that most visitors to this site - over 50% - used Google to reach here; followed by most using Blogger.com and then Yahoo. But, as much as I know and like iToot, I am rather very surprised that the 4th most used means of visitors coming here has been through them. Most surprising of all? Though I very rarely use Internet Explorer and I don't have much liking for it - 50.29% of visitors here used IE; followed by 38.61% who used Firefox; 4.96% used Safari; 3.28% used Chrome; and 1.16% used Opera.

Conclusion: not because they are not reading my blog; but Arabs simply do not like reading. We hate writing even more; that is why good Arab blogs are so few and that is why good, contemporary Arabic books - scientific, literary or otherwise - are very rare. The present education curriculum and system in the Arab world is most to blame for Arabs being so lethargic in reading and writing - except those who have been educated or trained outside; but, at the same time, Arabs have become so materialistic that they are no more interested in knowledge. As for Google, their Analytics is an incredibly amazing machine; only they at Mountain View could come up with such an excellent tool.

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