Reliably Doug Hall

Say what you like about public figures but I can't argue against the product and the service. #starlink makes PROPERLY remote work possible.

Morning!

When the drop hits -Act #2 In my last post, I shared some observations about the latency of our raw GA4 data landing in BigQuery.That sparked a wave of thoughtful follow-up questions. Thanks to everyone who reached out with insights and curiosities.ArchitectureAll of the datasets we’re analysing come from a single site: DugaDigital.com.The site is dual-tracked with two server-side streams: • One for GA4 360 • One for GA4 StandardWhich brings us to the core question:Are these two datasets actually comparable?Compare rows a

After last week’s GA4 latency breakdown, I took a closer look at a question many of you asked: Do GA4 360 and Standard server-side exports match up?

Quick answer: mostly yes — but the timings tell a story.
Full details:

When the drop hits Building a real-time tracker for GA4 data delivery timesI have a low tolerance for the misuse of instant messages.You know the type. The single "Hi" in a chat, followed by an agonising silence. Or worse, the classic late-Friday manager message: "We need to talk." That one sends a whole weekend's worth of anxiety spiralling, even if the "talk" is just to offer praise.But when messaging systems are used well, they're brilliant.At Duga Digital, we love good, timely, automated communication. Our tea

Ever get that "spidey-sense" your GA4 data drop is late?

We did. So we built a tracker.

The results surprised us: GA4 360 is faster (~7 hrs) than the Free tier (~9.5 hrs), but its delivery delay is far more volatile.

We've got the charts to prove it.

MUSHROOOOOOOOM

SNAAAAAKE!

And the Louvre security team...

Filtering GA like a boss This article will present two ways of filtering your data in GA. If you want to keep your production data nice and clean, you want to be able to report on production data only. Seems obvious but often you'll find data generated by Preview Mode in GTM.We're not advocating for testing in production but sometimes you need to trace down something that's broken...right?!Anyway, two ways to filter data - one for those using client side GTM only, and one for those using server side data collection.Clie

Today @Duga Digital is presenting TWO ways of filtering GA data - one for client side, one for server side. Filtering data is a VERRRRY useful technique:

Happy Birthday #GoogleTagManager - you're now a teenager!

This is a fascinating, and exciting direction for ecommerce - www.cbc.ca/news/busi...

github.com/agentic-c...

Intrigued to see where this takes analytics, data collection, and privacy.

cc: @tobi @ShopifyDevs @ShopifyEng

So if the media can't/won't open your eyes, start with cowspiracy, game changers, seaspiracy and go find some actual facts,

Half of the earth’s habitable land is already devoted to agriculture, and most of that – about 80% – is grazing pasture and cropland for animal feed, making meat consumption a major driver of deforestation globally.

Beef industry groups take an active approach to messaging, including staffing a 24/7 “command center” in Denver that scans social media for negative stories and deploys counter-messaging.

Google for "oprah winfrey ag gag"

Here's the thing, if the media doesn't hammer the message, how do most people know the facts?

"Meat production alone is responsible for nearly 60% of the food sector’s climate emissions and yet its impact is sorely underestimated"

Meat is a leading emissions source – but few outlets report on it, analysis finds Sentient Media reveals less than 4% of climate news stories mention animal agriculture as source of carbon emissions

"Sentient Media reveals less than 4% of climate news stories mention animal agriculture as source of carbon emissions"

www.theguardian.com/...

The analysis methodology is sound, powered by AI, checked by humans - a vital step.

When did @MeasureCampLDN become a rampant sell fest?

Your phone is not the real world

GA4 fans, foes, foibles, fantastic! If you know, you know and I’ve been through every version. Join me on a wild ride of brilliance, bugs, and buried features at the Digital analytics Summit in October.

Buckle up. #GA4 #IYKYK

digitalanalyticssumm...

OH: ChatGPT says publishing a change in GTM caused Google to index new pages.

Send help.

No. I don't think I will. No.

ProTip: If we all tracked our billable client time like we track our exercise in Strava, agency billing accuracy would be a dream!

Reality: Most time tracking tools could learn a ton from Strava!

Thought: Maybe use Strava as a time tracking tool?

The Two-Minute fix that might save your GA attribution data Just as Julius Fedorovicius of Analytics Mania debunked the myth that user_engagement before page_view does NOT cause (not set) (#gamechanger), I came across a peculiar instance where user_engagement appeared to be related to (not set) and merited investigation.  Spoiler: Julius is 100% correct, and this cautionary tale may include insight that you might not be aware of regarding GA configuration.I was running a test one day…We experiment regularly, and in doing so, we recalibrate our analytics

🚨 Your GA sessions might be breaking right now (and you don't even know it)

Why did a test spawn 100 organic sessions AND 100 "Unassigned" (not set) sessions.?

Question: Who/what caused this?

Solution: www.dugadigital.com/...

I fucking hate iframes.

Safari's new ATFP is a clear signal: user-level attribution is becoming unsustainable.

The future is aggregated campaign measurement, not individual tracking.

Attribution isn't dead—it's evolving.

www.dugadigital.com/...

Have a nice quiet/productive Monday morning.

slack-status.com/202...

Google Beam: Our AI-first 3D video communication platform Project Starline is becoming Google Beam, a platform that uses AI to turn 2D video streams into realistic, immersive video calls.

Will Google Beam be the tiping point for RTO?
blog.google/technolo...

Still doing video calls but more-or-less in person?

Make INSTANT tag changes using sGTM SummaryWhen you publish changes to your Google Tag Manager (GTM) container, it is possible the changes are not instantly live.This post demonstrates two techniques that enable instant changes to GTM containers - 1 desirable, one to watch out for!GTM versions get cachedBrowsers can cache assets like images, and JavaScript libraries. That's good because it makes the internet feel faster. It also means changes to your GTM container may not get refreshed immediately. Our handy chart of GTM con

🚨 Waiting AGES for GTM tag changes to go live? You’re losing data—and you don’t even know it. 😱

sGTM INSTANTLY updates tags (no more stale data, no more waiting!). Want to know the secret sauce that top analytics pros are using to stay ahead? 🔥

🔗 www.dugadigital.com/...

New ICO 2025 cookie banner warnings: Here’s how you adapt - Cookie Information Is your website ready for the ICO’s crackdown on non-compliant cookie banners?In early 2025, the UK’s Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) issued formal...

🚨 Cookie banners: Are you guessing or actually compliant?
Regulations are changing-fast. Risks are real.
Join me & Lars on May 28th to learn how to de-risk your cookie banner and act with confidence.

👉 Register now - webinar.cookieinform...

#CookieCompliance #Webinar

🚨 BREAKING: Google changed a cookie format! Panic everywhere-but your data is probably fine. Change is the only constant in digital, so check your tagging, adjust if needed, and move on. 😎🍪 Embrace change, don’t panic!
🔗 Read more on LinkedIn

TTJOAC was about 3 minutes ASW today. How's your day going?


ASW: After Starting Work - start the clock when the machine wakes up.

TTJOAC: Time To Jump-On-A-Call - how long until you get an email or Slack requesting this corp delight.

#LOL

C'est pas grave :-)

Some thoughts on the news this week regarding the Addingwell-Didomi merger - tldr; We're super excited! This strategic partnership is going to go from strength to strength.

www.dugadigital.com/...