1. What kind of statistics does blip.tv offer?
2. How often are blip.tv stats updated?
3. How accurate are blip.tv stats?
4. What does "self-reference" mean?

1. What kind of statistics does blip.tv offer?

At blip.tv we offer statistics showing the number of times your video has been viewed, the number of times it's been linked to from the outside world (and where it's been linked from) and what software your viewers are using to watch your video (a Web browser, an aggregator like iTunes, et cetera).

2. How often are blip.tv stats updated?

Statistics on blip.tv are updated every five to fifteen minutes in the background. While we do record every visit as it happens, for performance reasons we collate and organize stats data in the background.

3. How are statistics captured?

We record a "view" of a video every time a video is requested through its "Media Permalink". The Media Permalink is the URL we offer for videos that includes /file/get. All videos viewed on blip.tv directly and remotely through our copy & paste code, feeds, cross-posting and other distribution mechanisms use the Media Permalink. When linking to your video manually please make sure to use the Media Permalink.

4. How accurate are blip.tv stats?

We make every effort to ensure that blip.tv statistics are as accurate as possible. With that said, some Web software (like, for example, the excellent TV Tonic Windows Media Center plug-in) may request a video more than one time, even if it's only being viewed once. Other times people may link directly to the video (bypassing our /file/get URL) and their view may be missed. We regularly review the state of Web software behavior and adjust our statistics software to compensate for them.

We believe that our statistics are the best in the business, and we feel obligated to let you know about these kinds of issues even though others may not.

5. What does "self-reference" mean?

When viewing your statistics you may notice that certain views are tallied as "self-reference". This means that the viewer of your video came across your video on blip.tv itself, rather than through an outside Web site.