Page MenuHomePhabricator

Investigate recent rises in Automated traffic
Closed, ResolvedPublic

Assigned To
Authored By
kzimmerman
Nov 8 2022, 9:24 PM
Referenced Files
F36963894: image.png
Apr 26 2023, 10:04 PM
F35723367: Screen Shot 2022-11-08 at 1.46.57 PM.png
Nov 8 2022, 9:47 PM
F35723327: Screen Shot 2022-11-08 at 1.31.58 PM.png
Nov 8 2022, 9:40 PM
F35723300: Screen Shot 2022-11-08 at 1.33.07 PM.png
Nov 8 2022, 9:40 PM
F35723235: Screen Shot 2022-11-08 at 1.26.23 PM.png
Nov 8 2022, 9:32 PM
F35723253: Screen Shot 2022-11-08 at 1.27.58 PM.png
Nov 8 2022, 9:32 PM
F35723247: Screen Shot 2022-11-08 at 1.27.09 PM.png
Nov 8 2022, 9:32 PM

Description

Name for main point of contact and contact preference
Kate Zimmerman; Slack

What teams or departments is this for?
Product, but more generally to inform our understanding of Foundation-level metrics, especially as we think about strategy and plans

What are your goals? How will you use this data or analysis?
We have been sharing information about changes in pageviews but have not been able to explain the sharp rise in automated traffic. Is this automated traffic somehow indicative of user demand in a way that we should take into account as we plan features and services? Is it noise that we should dismiss?

What are the details of your request? Include relevant timelines or deadlines

Is this request urgent or time sensitive?
No

From Key Product Metrics (September's update):

Screen Shot 2022-11-08 at 1.27.09 PM.png (972×1 px, 171 KB)

Screen Shot 2022-11-08 at 1.27.58 PM.png (996×1 px, 257 KB)

Screen Shot 2022-11-08 at 1.26.23 PM.png (956×1 px, 172 KB)

Event Timeline

Looking at the data by access method, we saw increases starting on desktop in April/May, but the more surprising spike is from mobile web traffic starting in July

Screen Shot 2022-11-08 at 1.33.07 PM.png (1×1 px, 184 KB)
https://superset.wikimedia.org/r/2065

After filtering to mobile web traffic, the bulk of the increase was coming from Chrome Mobile. Interestingly, the operating system is Android 10 (the most current Android OS is 13 - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Android_version_history). But month by month, the spikes are coming from new Chrome Mobile releases (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Chrome_version_history)

Screen Shot 2022-11-08 at 1.31.58 PM.png (1×1 px, 251 KB)
https://superset.wikimedia.org/r/2066

Meanwhile, looking at desktop traffic and the top 10 browser/OS combinations, the spike is largely from Chrome 84 on the Windows 10 OS.

Screen Shot 2022-11-08 at 1.46.57 PM.png (1×1 px, 305 KB)
https://superset.wikimedia.org/r/2067

SNowick_WMF moved this task from Triage to Backlog on the Product-Analytics board.

We are once again seeing a rise in automated traffic in March 2023. This time it is showing up on external (search engine) referral traffic. (chart) in addition to none/direct traffic.

image.png (514×1 px, 77 KB)

March 2023 Key Product Metrics