{"id":8844,"date":"2020-06-10T12:22:55","date_gmt":"2020-06-10T19:22:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.mozilla.org\/addons\/?p=8844"},"modified":"2020-06-12T15:25:26","modified_gmt":"2020-06-12T22:25:26","slug":"improvements-to-statistics-processing-on-amo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.mozilla.org\/addons\/2020\/06\/10\/improvements-to-statistics-processing-on-amo\/","title":{"rendered":"Improvements to Statistics Processing on AMO"},"content":{"rendered":"

We\u2019re revamping the statistics we make available to add-on developers on addons.mozilla.org<\/a> (AMO).<\/p>\n

These stats are aggregated from add-on update logs and don\u2019t include any personally identifiable user data. They give developers information about user adoption, general demographics, and other insights that might help them make changes and improvements.<\/p>\n

The current system is costly to run, and glitches in the data have been a long-standing recurring issue<\/a>. We are addressing these issues by changing the data source, which will improve reliability and reduce processing costs.<\/p>\n

Usage Statistics<\/h2>\n

Until now, add-on usage statistics have been based on add-on updates. Firefox checks AMO daily for updates for add-ons that are hosted there (self-distributed add-ons generally check for updates on a server specified by the developer). The server logs for these update requests are aggregated and used to calculate the user counts shown on add-on pages on AMO. They also power a statistics dashboard for developers that breaks down the usage data by language, platform, application, etc.<\/p>\n

\"Stats

Stats dashboard showing new version adoption for uBlock Origin<\/p><\/div>\n

In a few weeks, we will stop using the daily pings as the data source for usage statistics. The new statistics will be based on Firefox telemetry data<\/a>. As with the current stats, all data is aggregated and no personally identifiable user data is shared with developers.<\/p>\n

The data shown on AMO and shared with developers will be essentially the same, but the move to telemetry means that the numbers will change a little. Firefox users can opt out of sending telemetry data, and the way they are counted is different. Our current stats system counts distinct users by IP address, while telemetry uses a per-profile ID. For most add-ons you should expect usage totals to be lower, but usage trends and fluctuations should be nearly identical.<\/p>\n

Telemetry data will enable us to show data for add-on versions that are not listed on AMO, so all developers will now be able to analyze their add-on usage stats, regardless of how the add-on is distributed. This also means some add-ons will have higher usage numbers, since the average will be calculated including both AMO-hosted and self-hosted versions.<\/p>\n

Other changes that will happen due to this update:<\/p>\n