Hi Guys, Just wanted to give you a heads up that I am doing some work on the site and the forums. Currently some optimization stuff. I don't foresee this causing any problems except for a short time the avatars and profile pictures may not display correctly. So don't panic! Everything is ok. Also in the upcoming weeks we will be upgrading to the latest version of vbulletin to keep everything secure and running smooth. There will be a downtime of up to 24 hours while I backup everything and make the transition. I'll put up a sticky post when that time gets closer. Thanks and keep the kind comin! Webby
Thanks for the heads up Quick question(s). I use Fire Fox with a script blocking add on. As of today it's showing that it's blocking "Google-analytics". This has not come up before on GK. Is this related to the updates? What does it do? Does GK benefit if I allow it? Thanks for your investments in this forum! Gratitude
Just about everywhere I go on the net I see it... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Analytics Google Analytics (abbreviated GA) is a free service offered by Google that generates detailed statistics about the visitors to a website. Its main highlight is that the product is aimed at Marketers as opposed to webmasters and technologists which is where the industry of web analytics traditionally grew from. GA can track visitors from all referrers, including search engines, display advertising, pay-per-click networks, email marketing and even digital collateral such as links within PDF documents. Integrated with AdWords, users can optimize online campaigns by tracking landing page quality and conversions (goals). Goals might include sales, lead generation, viewing a specific page, or downloading a particular file. These can also be monetized. By using GA, marketers can determine which ads are performing, and which are not, providing the information to optimise or cull campaigns. GA's approach is to show high level dashboard-type data for the casual user, and more in-depth data further into the report set. Through the use of GA analysis, poor performing pages can be identified using techniques such as funnel visualization, where visitors came from (referrers), how long they stayed and their geographical position. It also provides more advanced features, including custom visitor segmentation. Users can officially add up to 50 site profiles. Each profile generally corresponds to one website. History Google still sells the standalone installable Urchin software through a network of Google's service was modeled upon Urchin Software Corporation's analytics system, Urchin on Demand (Google acquired Urchin Software Corp. in April 2005). The system also brings ideas from Adaptive Path, whose product, Measure Map, was acquired and renamed to Google Analytics in 2006. [1]value-added resellers; In April 2008, Urchin 6 was released. The Google-branded version was rolled-out in November 2005 to anyone who wished to sign up. However due to extremely high demand for the service, new sign-ups were suspended only a week later. As capacity was added to the system, Google began using a lottery-type invitation-code model. Prior to August 2006 Google was sending out batches of invitation codes as server availability permitted; since mid-August 2006 the service has been fully available to all users - whether you are an advertiser with Google or not. A new version of the user interface was released on May 17, 2007.[1] In December 2007, Google rolled out the new ga.js page tag which they recommend to use for all new accounts and new profiles for new domains. Existing urchin.js page tags will continue to work, nevertheless new tag will allow you to take advantage of the most up-to-date tracking functionality, ability to graph multiple data points at once and to track ecommerce transactions in a more readable way.[2] Technology This section needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding reliable references. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (November 2007) Google Analytics is implemented by including what is known as a "page tag". This is referred to as the Google Analytics Tracking Code (GATC) and is a hidden snippet of JavaScript code that the user adds onto every page of their website. This code acts as a beacon, collecting anonymous visitor data and sending it back to Google data collection servers for processing. Data processing takes place hourly, though it can be 3-4 hours in arrears of real time. To function, the GATC loads a larger file from the Google webserver and then sets variables with the user's account number. The larger file (currently known as ga.js) is typically 18 KB in size and is only downloaded once at the start of the visit as it will be cached throughout the session. As all websites that implement GA with the ga.js code are using the same master file from Google, a visitor that has previously visited any other website with this code implemented, will also have the file cached on their machine. The result is that the page overhead of including the GATC on your web pages is kept to a minimum. In addition to broadcasting information to Google servers, the GATC sets first party cookies on each visitor's computer. This is used to store anonymous information such as whether the visitor has been to the site before (new or returning visitor), what is the timestamp of the current visit and what was the referrer site or campaign the visitor came from e.g. search engine, keywords, banner, email etc. Limitations Many ad filtering programs and extensions (such as Firefox's Adblock and NoScript) can block the GATC. This prevents some traffic and users from being tracked, and leads to holes in the collected data. Also, privacy networks like Tor will mask the user's actual location and present inaccurate geographical data. Some users do not have Javascript-enabled/capable browsers or turn this feature off. However, these limitation are considered small - affecting only a small percentage of visits [3]. The largest potential impact on data accuracy comes from users deleting or blocking Google Analytics cookies[4]. Without cookies being set, GA cannot collect data. The blocking or deleting of cookies is a privacy right of every online individual and will result in the data loss of those visits for GA users. The only protection a website owner can use to prevent this, is to ensure best practice policies are upheld on their web site. That includes being transparent in what visitor data is collected and how it is used. This information is usually placed within a privacy policy statement page. tools that collect on-site visitor data using page tags. That is, the small piece of code (usually It is important to note that these limitations affect all on-site web analyticsJavaScript) that acts as a beacon to collect visitor data.
no need to allow it at all. it's exactly what snick posted. i am trying to get a handle on where the traffic is coming from and how much we have. this allows me to optimize the site for search engines and have information for potential advertisers. if you would rather not have these anonymous stats collected i understand 100% so go ahead and keep blocking it
Thanks to you both! Appreciate the responses. I will continue to block it... now that I know I'm not "biting the hand..." so to speak. Stay clean! Grat
...hey dude... ...Thanks for all you bring...yer' the man!... ...My home away from home on the net...GrowKind!!! ...Where would I be w/o it?...:love4: ...Uh, don't even go there!... ...Cheers, Webber!... ...DC...:XXsunsmile::new_scatter:
