SiteMeter glitch knocks thousands down

Author: Gareth Halfacree
Published: 4th August 2008
Comments (15) Stumble
SiteMeter glitch knocks thousands down

Changes to the SiteMeter service on Saturday caused client websites to crash Internet Explorer.

An embarrassing bug in Javascript code used by site monitoring service SiteMeter left thousands of websites inaccessible to Internet Explorer users on Saturday.

As reported by DownloadSquad, the bug was introduced in the Javascript code used by websites to track visitors via the SiteMeter analytics service as part of changes the company is making to update and improve its systems. While the code works fine in any third-party browser you care to name, Internet Explorer 5.5, 6, and 7 all choke fatally when the bug is encountered. Ironic, as one of the things the service purports to offer is uptime monitoring.

Many popular websites including Gizmodo and LifeHacker use the service to track the browsing habits of their visitors, and all were out for the count when accessed by Internet Explorer users on Saturday morning. It took several hours for SiteMeter to revert the code and fix the problem, with many users opting to switch to the plain-jane HTML tracking rather than waiting for SiteMeter to repair the problem.

The good news is that all affected sites are now back up, with SiteMeter offering its sincere apologies for the issue, blaming the problem on work “on the backend system for our upcoming website launch.” Quite why the changes, which resulted in issues viewing SiteMeter-tracked sites where the Javascript tag wasn't a direct child of the body tag and additional problems with webmasters viewing their own statistics, only affected Internet Explorer users hasn't been made clear by the company.

Do you believe this issue should be taken as a hint for end-users to move away from the monopoly Windows-based web browser, or instead for webmasters to think about alternative analytics services? Share your thoughts over in the forums.
Quote legoman666 4th August 2008, 15:06
Quote:
While the code works fine in any third-party browser you care to name

What in the hell is a "third party browser"?
Quote Timmy_the_tortoise 4th August 2008, 15:22
Quote:
Originally Posted by legoman666
Quote:
While the code works fine in any third-party browser you care to name

What in the hell is a "third party browser"?

Opera, Firefox etc.
Quote HugoB 4th August 2008, 15:49
Safari was fine too, which (for some) is a first-party browser ;)
Quote TGImages 4th August 2008, 17:18
How about everyone (websites) stop worrying about our browsing habits and instead focus on content and function???
Quote legoman666 4th August 2008, 17:47
Quote:
Originally Posted by Timmy_the_tortoise
Quote:
Originally Posted by legoman666
Quote:
While the code works fine in any third-party browser you care to name

What in the hell is a "third party browser"?

Opera, Firefox etc.

And what is a first party browser? I do not think it means what you think it means.
Quote ParaHelix.org 4th August 2008, 19:25
Quote:
Originally Posted by legoman666
Quote:
Originally Posted by Timmy_the_tortoise
Quote:
Originally Posted by legoman666
Quote:
While the code works fine in any third-party browser you care to name

What in the hell is a "third party browser"?

Opera, Firefox etc.

And what is a first party browser? I do not think it means what you think it means.

Yes, there is no such thing as a "third party browser", I think what you mean by it though is a browser that does not come pre-installed into an operating system.
Quote B3CK 4th August 2008, 20:00
Why can we install third party browsers in windows, but can't install IE in linux? I smell another anti-trust lawsuit.
Quote Cthippo 4th August 2008, 20:32
Actually, you can, but it needs to run under WINE or some such program. The really entertaining bit is that WINE will pass the WGA check, even though it has NO MS code :D
Quote Singularity 4th August 2008, 20:34
Quote:
Originally Posted by B3CK
Why can we install third party browsers in windows, but can't install IE in linux? I smell another anti-trust lawsuit.

More importantly... why would we want to? :D
Quote TomH 4th August 2008, 21:17
Quote:
Originally Posted by B3CK
Why can we install third party browsers in windows, but can't install IE in linux? I smell another anti-trust lawsuit.
Because we don't want to :p

(And it might work via Wine, if WGA didn't get in the way.)
Quote Yemerich 5th August 2008, 02:06
good thing bit tech was online saturday :D
Quote Armand-[79th] 5th August 2008, 03:38
Yet more proof that IE is complete arse. :D
Quote quack 6th August 2008, 01:07
IE7 has no WGA checks.
Quote TomH 6th August 2008, 08:38
Quote:
Originally Posted by quack
IE7 has no WGA checks.
That's news to me. When did that happen?

Edit: Seems you're right! Maybe I'll see if it works later.. :)
Quote quack 6th August 2008, 11:17
According to this article, October 2007.
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20071004-seeking-market-share-microsoft-removes-wga-anti-piracy-check-from-ie7.html
Log in

You are not logged in, please login with your forum account below. If you don't already have an account please register to start contributing.







Mobile Phones

LG Arena ReviewHTC Magic Review

Compare over 250 mobile phones &
52,000 deals!



Broadband

Mobile Broadband

Compare over 100 broadband & mobile broadband deals online!