Alberto Gregorio

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Tracking Services (2025 edition)

Published Jan 06, 2024

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Almost 4 years have passed since my last entry with respect to tracking services (which you can read here) and I feel that somehow it is time to revise the topic once again and compare how things worked post-pandemic (there are indeed some changes, but mostly everything has keep working as it used to)

Without further ado, here is my current list of trackers:

Books 📚

Little change here. Goodreads is still the most complete database library with an interface nice enough to use. Their focus on the “yearly challenge” gamifies reading to a point where some books are read more for stats than for pleasure. Oh well, tracking is the name of the game here, and Goodreads is still king.

Music 🎵

I was not completely sure that I was still using Last.fm before writing this and had to double check whether it was still configured with Spotify (which kind of is my go-to stop for all music related activities these days). Indeed, the app is still correctly “scrobbling” and saving statistics since 2009. Well, if something works.. why changing it right?

Movies 📽

FilmAffinity’s lack of integration, together with the other problems mentioned last time (notably the horrendous interface and the focus on subscription services) have not been solved in these last four years. In fact, the web design looks directly out of 2000, thankfully its contents are a little bit more modern. Sad state of affairs for sure.

On the other side of the spectrum, Trakt.tv is a modern tracker (at least for me originally just for series) that has been steadily gaining traction due to the simple integration with software like Kodi and Plex.

I am still using both for the time being, but I expect to drop FilmaAffinity at some point in the near future. Maybe once Trakt.tv has access to something else than Hollywood Blockbusters..

Videogames 🕹

Previously I used How Long To Beat (or HLTB for short) to track and obtain a little bit of information about the different games. Nowadays, HLTB is decently integrated in XBOX Game Pass and its main statistic (Average Time To Beat) is visible in the interface without having to visit the painfully designed website. On the other hand, since there is still no good recommendation system for my taste, I use Metacritic to scratch that itch.

GOG Galaxy meanwhile is an unassuming software, which clearly tries to nudge its users towards its own shop (it is in the name guys) while providing an easy-enough to navigate database.

TV Shows 📺

What I say then: I am happy with trakt.tv, it integrates seamlessly with my workflow and the statistics are good enough for my purposes. Trakt.tv in fact also tracks movies, and it is a contender in that space as well. Unfortunately they do not yet include as many movies as I would like.

What I say now: ditto.

Screen Time 💻

My employer uses a very questionable software to track time (whose name I would not name here). The functionality for the end-used is so bad that I had to do something about it. And so I did. Enter TRISCO. This is a tool that I use to keep track of my time (for the moment only during working hours). The synchronization is then done in the background without any further user interaction required. It is far from perfect, but also a level higher than the previous solution available to me, so I am happy for the time being.

MOOC (online courses) 🎓

I do not think that Pluralsight offers any special content that you cannot get somewhere else, but it is easy to seach, convenient and extensive. I had not done due diligence in this category because this platform is provided by my employer and as such it is pretty much my go-to place for all course related activities. Once I am sure that the platform does not include anything that could be of interest I scour the web for alternatives, where I usually land in very obscure pages which offer incredible one-in-a-lifetime offer, twice a day.