Dear Readers,

This far, I have not written about this newspaper, so here is an update for the year so far. We were lucky enough to hire a brilliant web manager, Patrick Sanders, who helped us to launch a new Web site, www.uafsunstar.com.

With the new site, we can check the statistics of page views from Google Analytics. This data can be used to help us learn what people are looking at to better manage content and attract advertisers. We can track what people are looking at and where they view it from. The wonders of the Internet probably lead a lot of users to the Sun Star by accident, but it also is a tool for people to learn about new places from us. Here are some interesting facts garnered from the Web site:

• Last month we had visitors from 55 countries around the world. In months where we have had consistent publication that number has jumped above 70.
• The top two cities that view the Sun Star are Fairbanks and Anchorage.
• Most of our traffic comes from the Google search engine. Some of the most popular search terms are obvious, Sun Star Sunstar and UAF news, however last semester we received a lot of traffic from people who had Googled Shakira and been direct to a Sun Star article about belly dancing that mentioned Shakira as a belly dancer. We also get a lot of hits on any article that mentions sex or any... unmentionables.
• During Christmas break, over 8,700 people viewed the article about Ezra Strong, the student who goes barefoot during the winter. The page was linked to another website that sent viewers our way.

We’re working out some bugs and playing with new features including a sports blog by Kortnie Westfall and adding more photos. I think I received more feedback this week on the error in the Sudoku puzzle than any one other issue thus far in my editing career. I offer my apologies for not looking at it before publication. It should work this week, so happy puzzling while you should be listening in class or working.

I was most appreciative of all the feedback from people regarding the athletics fee. We love to hear from you and I think a lot of people raised from interesting points that I had never thought of. Keep the letters coming.