thanks for the pointer.. i didn't know of piwik.. i just installed it and viewed my website.. it shows my web connection as being in usa, though i am in europe! ;)
oh well, maybe in a few versions it will be a replacement for google. 

aha, i needed to enable the geo location plugin.. so far piwik is very nice.

has anyone extended this plugin to include custom variables for elgg?
e.g. http://piwik.org/blog/2012/10/using-custom-variables-in-piwik-tutorial/