I’ve already made known my irrational love for all things Google. Sure, they show signs of Microsoft megalomania at times, but—god love ’em—their stuff doesn’t suck. And most of it is free, free, free. At least for now.

So, while I strive to keep my cynical, anti-corporate street cred intact (well, as intact as possible when I bring you this here post from the inside of jeans from Target), I have a hard time not screaming it from the mountain tops. I love Google.

I had a point. Yes. So, right now I am obsessed with Google’s Web analytics tool, aptly named Google Analytics. No, I don’t have terribly massive traffic on the site. I don’t have ads or the associated revenue, nor do I have any goals to track, funnel or otherwise bend to my will. [mooah-ha-ha-haaa] Still, I can’t stop looking at it.

I especially love the Geo Location report.

You can drill down and see the town and province of a visitor’s ISP. I’m learning tons about geography.

But then there’s the mother of all freakin’ reports … the Geo Map Overlay.

Okay, for starters, just the name has more cool than your run-of-the-mill hipster … even in his small-E Levis and vintage Members Only jacket, or whatever the kids are wearing these days. Also, it’s pretty damned cool to see … literally see … who’s reading this schlock … well, see dot-like representations of the companies who are paid by people reading this schlock for Internet service. Six of one …

Ah, I don’t know. Maybe I’m just a simple farm girl who’s wowed with fancy graphs and thinks Google makes a mean Web app, but I find it a bit like traveling. I don’t think it’s what those mean girls in junior high meant when they said I got around, but … fuck ’em. After all, a little bit o’ Crazy Monkey Gurl just went to Launceston, Tasmania and Fond Du Lac, Wisconsin. That’s quite somethin’, really. When you think about it.