Sitemeter is the free traffic meter I’ve been using since day one of the blog to keep track of visits and page views. It’s public, and linked at the bottom of the page in the footer.
The reason I like Sitemeter is it’s free. And it’s used by TaxProf for his law professor blog rankings. And it’s free.
I have noticed recently an annoying pop-up from Sitemeter. It looks like this:
I thought maybe it was just me, but a reader emailed that he’s having the same problem.
Don’t worry, we’re not trying to install anything on your computer, and I don’t know what that’s about. I have a service request in to Sitemeter, but if past history repeats itself, I’ll never get a response.
Please let me know in the comments if you are seeing it, and if so, what browser you are using.
Update 9-29-2013: Based on the comments, and my own testing of several browsers, it looks like it is a problem only in Internet Explorer.
I found (after much digging) the company that owns Sitemeter (that info. is nowhere to be found on the Sitemeter site) and emailed their business and technical people. If I can’t get this fixed in the next couple of days, I’ll probably have to remove Sitemeter, which would be a shame because it’s been counting almost since the beginning of Legal Insurrection, and is the only comprehensive cumulative history of LI’s traffic (over 31 million visits and 41 million page views since October 2008).
Update 9-30-2013 9 p.m. Eastern — I’m not seeing it anymore even in IE. Let me know in the comments if you still have the problem. Maybe my emails to Sitemeter’s owner got their attention.
Here’s the explanation our website consultant, Andy LoCascio of Sound Strategies, gave — it probably was a sloppy coding problem by Sitemeter:
We researched this. It is clearly an issue with how IE 10 works with sitemeter. The problem is sloppy coding from sitemeter. They need to fix their plugin.
We found some supporting research here: http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/ie/forum/ie10-windows_8/block-analyticsjs-from-asitemetercom/d8fe12ba-d791-4ec3-9bee-6bb6a5c0db1d.
DONATE
Donations tax deductible
to the full extent allowed by law.
Comments
I’ve had a pop up from Sitemeter at least two times, although I don’t think it’s the one you’ve got screencapped. I figured they’re trying to make a little more money. I don’t like it, but the service is free. I just click log out the pop out and move on. I’ll be interested to see what you find.
By the way, this Motorola “Tomorrow’s World” at your Google ads at right just popped up, so what can you do, I guess? I just scrolled over accidentally and it popped up on my screen. The ad says “Rollover to watch live now…”
I get that same pop-up every time I visit any page on the site. I tried saving it off to disc to inspect it, but I just get zero-byte file.
When I ran it in a VM, it didn’t seem to do anything – no new connections, no cookies, nothing I could see.
I use IE 10 and an updated Chrome.
So, I don’t see any harm in it right now, but it certainly is annoying.
It seems I’m getting that exact pop up on almost every site that I get on. I’ve given up trying to get rid of it. I’ve tried everything.
I’m seeing the pop up as well. I’m using the latest version of Internet Explorer (Version 10.0.9200.16686)
This may be a problem on sitemeters end as well. Updates to operating systems may require new scripts. Or it may be that an option needs to be toggled on a browser on the client end in order to allow certain remote javascripts (But this can also open one up to viruses as well).
I’m using Safari on an iPad and don’t see it.
Come to think of it, I didn’t see it on the desktop PC I was using earlier today either, but that one runs Firefox with several privacy (anti-tracking) tools on it, so it probably blocks Sitemeter altogether.
My people are getting that too. (On a Blogger blog) I thought it was an isolated glitch.
I’m on IE, and I’m seeing it every damn two minutes. I’m about ready to cancel sitemeter if I can figure out how.
I’m using Safari on a MacBook Air and don’t see it.
I am seeing it on internet explorer but I have also, over the last few days, run into the same popup on some other sites but, alas, I didn’t make note of which sites they were.
Never seen that before. Running FireFox 23.0.1 on Debian Sid and FireFox 24.0.1 on Arch.
I wonder whether it’s only affecting Microsoft Windows &/or Microsoft IE users.
I’m having that pop-up on this website and a number of other websites. I use IE 10 on Windows 8. It’s definitely obnoxious.
Site-me-ter In-sur-rec-tion
I am using firefox, no pop ups!
Tried both IE and Chrome on PC and LT, no pop up.
Safari on Macbook and no popup
Firefox 25.0 and no popup.
(I also have the ghostery 5.0.4 addon, but legalinsurrection is whitelisted so as not to block anything that might help your ratings, revenues, etc)
I got a popup with IE and none with Firefox.
I’ve never had that happen.
Firefox 24.0 (with AdBlock Plus enabled if that makes a difference) and haven’t seen a pop-up. I also use ghostery but sitemeter is not blocked for this site.
Checked on IE 10 and sitemeter popped up.
Nothing on Chrome.
Ed-zachary, but FF 23.0.1
I use NoScript add-on for Firefox and it’s set to block Sitemeter.com thus I see nothing in the way of a pop-up. 🙂
No “No script” here…
Yea, this has been popping up for about 3-4 days, here as well as other sites. Thought I’d done something wrong. I’m using IE 10.
yes. I am also getting it. not just your site either.
I don’t see it on multiple browsers, but have disabled pop-ups or enabled the pop-up blocks, as well as block whatever else can be blocked re cookies, flash settings, etc. By the same token, because of that, scripts on your site constantly cause the computer performance to go overboard keeping them down, sometimes to the point that I have to close the LI tab or tabs (it’s particularly bad when more than one tab is open, such as the home page and an article page — computer’s fan goes nuts.) Now there’s a suspect.
I am getting it, and I use FeedDemon to view your site.
I’ve been getting it constantly for three or four days now.
IE 10, version 10.0.9200.16686
I’ve been getting the message on IE10 for the last several days. It’s not really a popup. It is a permission request from IE because it perceives sitemeter is trying to run something called analytics.js. It has only started appearing in the last week and stays gone for me when I cancel it only to re-appear when a new LI or CI window/tab is opened. It would probably disappear permanently if I gave it permission to run, or lowered my security settings (currently medium-high), but of course, then I would be allowing them to get their grubby hands on me and steal all of my secrets. Google and the NSA would never do anything like that.
I don’t get it at home on IE on Windows 8, but I do at work (and not just on your website) using IE on Windows, but I’m not sure what version–tho I know it’s not Windows 8.
Started yesterday, constantly using IE 10 on Windows.
analytics.js is an intrusive Google tracking script like google-analytics.js. Unless you want Google tracking every website you visit, learning all your aliases, your shopping preferences, and God only knows what else – then selling that information to the NSA, you should block those scripts with NoScript. I just turned on blocking for sitemeter, as well, since they want to facilitate that game. How does anyone think these “free” services make their money, anyway?
Getting it every 10 – 15 seconds, on Internet Explorer. Appears constantly, especially if I expand an article and then go back to original page. VERY annoying. I am not enough of a computer geek to figure out how to stop it. Wish I could – it is almost enough to make me stop visiting LI, which is second only to Drudge in my frequency of visits.
I use Chrome, and I’m not seeing it.
I’m running Chrome on several Mac platforms (MacBookPro 10.8.5, iPad 6.1.4, iPhone 6.1.4) and have never seen that popup.
–Andrew, @LawSelfDefense
Have that popup showing up on any site with sitemeter when I’m using AOL but not on Firefox or my iPhone 5. My computer is using Windows 7.
I don’t see it. I use Safari on a Mac (OS/X Mountain Lion)
Shows up on IE10 Windows 8. Same popup appears on Volokh
The unwelcome Sitemeter popup is now an inevitable nuisance at every change of screen on Legal Insurrection, and some other sites too. Out damned spot!
Annoying security warning is annoying. Happens on many sites, not just here. Just upgraded to Win 8.1 and IE 11, and it hasn’t gone away.
Seems like next time I do a big website update, I’m going to be removing sitemeter. If that’s what they’re doing, I’m tired of it. Furthermore, I’ve been having trouble with them for a LONG time because it probably doesn’t catch at least 2/3 of the traffic to my site – a problem caused by the necessity of my site to be in unicode because of all the Russian (including a bit of “pre-1917” Russian) there. In essence, all it really is counting is visitors with IE and some versions of Firefox. The internet has come a long way since those were the only choices!
The problem is the browser settings not the Operating System. As far as I know even IE has the capability to block these types of popup irritations.
Anybody know how to get rid of it from IE, short of download another browser like firefox?
It appears on pretty much every single site I visit. I’m ready to beat someone to death over it.
I’m on IE 10.
Nothing from this front but I’m a MicroSoft free Mac user…
I’m not seeing it anymore, are readers? Let me know.
No, but your Amazon link isn’t showing up either and I was planning on shopping today 🙂
I’m an IE10 user. Fixed.
Hat tip to Pierre70 for pointing me in the right direction
This is what worked for me
1. Go to IE Tools>Internet Options>Programs tab> select Manage Add-Ons
2. Select Add on type “Tracking Protection”
3. Highlight “Your Personalized List” and in lower right hand cornet click “Settings”
4. Make sure “Chose Content to Block or Allow” is selected
5. Look for instances of sitemeter.com, I found two instances in my list.
6. Highlight each instance and click “Block”
This worked for me and got rid of the popups – analytics.js a.sitemeter.com- popups
IE is a pig of a browser in so many ways I gave up trying to keep count years ago. Chrome, Firefox, Safari… there are so many better options that work great on Windows.