Dot Wordsworth on the word ‘sticky’.
Longfellow, in the middle of writing ‘Hiawatha’, complained to his diary one hot day of ‘Chamber-maids chattering about — children crying — and everything sticky except postage stamps, which having stuck all together like a swarm of bees, refuse further duty.’ It’s funny how Longfellow wrote better informally than when he tried. Anyway, stickiness has, my daughter tells me, become a virtue in business circles. It is a desirable quality for websites, from which so many strive to squeeze money. Stickiness glues users to your site and makes them return to it, like flies to syrup.
‘Determining the sticky quotient of your website requires server log analysis,’ says some site not unconnected with server-log analysts. ‘These stats can tell you how long each visitor stayed at your site, how often they return and what drew their attention.
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