According to Google spokeswoman Kate Mason, prior to the GAP’s relaunch in April 2012 it had received over 20 million visitors (cited in Dickinson 2012a). This is nearly the same number of visitors that Te Papa has had walk through its front doors since it opened in 1998.172 Or approximately fourteen times the traffic that Te Papa’s own homepage received over a similar timeframe.173 The numbers are impressive but they are not comparable. For a more balance examination this section will briefly analyse data from three sites, two from Te Papa’s own website, its homepage and the its Collections Online site as well as Te Papa’s GAP site.174 For the purposes of this examination a period from 28 July 2013 to 28 October 2013 will be analysed.175
28 July 2013 -‐ 28 October 2013
Te Papa's
Homepage2 Te Papa's Collections Online
3 Te Papa's Google Art
Project4
Total unique visits 180,204 102,620 7,749
Total pageviews 754,663 319,937 73,336
Average visits per day 1,938 1,103 83
%* New Visitors 75% 78% 69%
%* New Zealand traffic 1 79% 38% 3%
%* Non-‐New Zealand
traffic 1
21% 61% 97%
Average number of pages
visited 3.04 3.12 9.53
Average visit duration 0:02:22 0:02:07 0:07:49
1
Percentages averaged from 28 October 2012-‐28 October 2013 and 28 September 2013-‐28 October 2013 due to discrepancy in Te Papa’s data over selected period. Te Papa’s GAP data is from 1 June 2013-‐30 November 2013.
2 http://www.tepapa.govt.nz/
3 http://collections.tepapa.govt.nz/
4 http://www.google.com/culturalinstitute/collection/te-‐papa?projectId=art-‐project&hl=en
* Percentages have been rounded and may not add up to 100%. Additionally "not set" and
"not provided" data have been excluded.
Although this table clearly illustrates the Te Papa’s GAP presence receives considerably less than either of Te Papa’s own websites. Nevertheless, the data reveals a number of
172 See Te Papa. (2013). Annual report 2012/2013. Wellington, New Zealand: Author, p. 1. 173 The GAP had been operating for fourteen months and received 20 million visits. Over the 12
month period of the 2011-‐2012 financial year the Te Papa homepage received 1,364,670 visits. See Te Papa. (2013). Annual report 2012/2013. Wellington, New Zealand: Author, p. 6.
174 Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa. Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa.
Retrieved from http://www.tepapa.govt.nz/.
Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa. Collections online. Retrieved from
http://collections.tepapa.govt.nz/.
175 Unfortunately, due to a change in Te Papa’s website analytics tool some data has been
deemed unreliable and hence a complete summary of their participation in the Google Art Project is not available.
divergences in audience and behaviour. The ratio of New Zealand to international traffic visiting Te Papa’s homepage is heavily weighted in the local users favour. Corresponding data from specific pages visited reveal that the majority of this traffic is related to visiting the physical museum and hence a local bias is to be expected.176 The Collections Online is more balanced ratio, however, those that visit Te Papa’s GAP presence are far more likely to be doing so from outside of New Zealand. Auckland Art Gallery’s data reflects similar trends, with New Zealand traffic accounting for approximately 73% of their homepage visits and only 4.5% that view their GAP presence.177
This data suggests that not only are different demographics are accessing these sites. But it can also be argued that those visiting GAP represent a direct link between the museum’s online collection and a public that have no intention of entering the physical space, disestablishing the museum as intermediary (Stephen, 2003). Further, when incorporating data on the average time spent per visit and the average number of pages visited, figures from Te Papa's own two websites are considerably lower than those recorded by their GAP presence.178 Again, data from the AAG reveal the same tendencies with the average time and pages for their GAP presence over double that spent on their own website.179 Nonetheless the GAP audience is one that spends more time, looks at more objects and arguably has no intention of entering the physical museum.
176 17 out of the top 25 webpages visited across all of Te Papa’s websites where related to
information about the museum, current and future exhibitions or general practical aspects regarding visiting the museum such as parking arrangements. Out of the 361,399 pageviews that the top 25 sites received over 28 July 2013 – 28 October 2013, 234,409. This is
approximately 65% of the traffic or 17 of the 25 sites. With 7 of the 25 sites connected to the popular Giant Squid (http://squid.tepapa.govt.nz/) minisite and Collections Online being the 8th most visited site although only receiving 12,498 pageviews or 3.5% of the traffic (Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa, personal communication, December 9, 2013).
177 Details. Reference NZ traffic is 72.94% and 4.35% (November 20, 2012 -‐ November 19, 2013) 178 Ruth Hendry, a Te Papa website administrator has pointed out that the average number of
pages visited is a challenging statistic to analyse. This is primarily due to the actions of two different types of users. Where the first will look solely at the opening hours or current exhibitions and then exit the site. The second is a much less focused user and will explore all manner of pages within the site. This has the tendency to create wildly varying numbers that result in an average that can be misleading (R. Hendry, personal communication, January 13 2014).
179 AAG homepage, average time, 0:02:15, average pages, 3.33, AAG GAP, average time,
0:04:54, average pages, 7.29 (Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki, personal communication, November 20, 2013).