Google Analytics…Acceptable and necessary SPYWARE?
Google Analytics is a pretty useful stat tracking service to run on your website. Add a code to the <head> section of your website and you can track all of your site’s stats in pretty little graphs and do all the research you want on your sites visitors, referrers etc. The only thing about using Analytics is Google would also knows this information.
Do you think Google uses those stats for anything?
Are you worried about Google using those stats?
Honestly, I never thought about it. I figured that Google could pretty much figure out a lot of that info on their own, without you adding Analytics to your site. Until the day I got an email from Google.
When I first started blogging over at Jonzee.com, I already had an adsense account from a past website, so I just added it to Jonzee.com. I got started, wrote a few blog post, and started submitting my blog to all the search engines, and directories. I ran across a site called Blogexplosion. If you’ve never been there, its basically a blog directory, but it has an auto-surf feature, sort of like Stumbleupon. When you auto-surf, you gain points. when others auto-surf, your site will randomly show up, depending on how many points you have. Blogexplosion, from what I read, was pretty good at bringing you traffic, that was before I joined. When I joined, It pretty much seemed like an abandoned site with a lot users and broken features. Brought very little traffic. I used it for a while, then pretty much forgot about it. I racked up some points, but it brought so little traffic that I was just never going to use up all the points I had.
About 4 or 5 months of blogging went by and I found out about Analytics. I signed up, and put the code on my site. About 3 weeks after adding the code, I got an email from Google. Threatening to ban me from Adsense because I was using illegal (according to Google) ways to generate clicks. I was so scared because Adsense is the default money maker for many websites. I definitely didn’t want to get banned before I made 1 cent.
Before I made 1 cent is the key phrase here.
I wasn’t getting any clicks, I was barely getting any traffic, what was I illegally doing? I responded to Google, very politely, told them that I wasn’t aware that I was doing anything wrong. I asked what was it that I was doing wrong. I also explained that I hadn’t gotten any clicks or made any money. They told me that using Auto-surf services, such as Blogexplosion was against their policies and can get me banned (which I honestly didn’t know). I told them I didn’t know, and removed Adsense from my blog…thinking I will put it back once all my points were gone at Blogexplosion.
But after it was all over and the fear of being banned from Adsense was gone, I started to think about how I have been a member of Blogexplosion and have had adsense from the beginning. why is it that as soon as I install Analytics, I get called on it.
Needless to say, I don’t use Blogexplosion anymore and I have not and will not put Google Analytics on any more blogs.
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September 4th, 2007 at 7:55 am
[...] Original post by David Jones [...]
September 4th, 2007 at 11:34 am
Maybe they did use Analytics to find out about blogexplosion, but I don’t think it’s their only tool. I did read an article in a major newspaper that autosurfer and similar programs is something that google actively search for. I don’t think google would restrict themselves only to user of Analytics.
September 4th, 2007 at 12:03 pm
Yea, I’m not completely convinced that Analytics is how they found it. And I’m pretty sure, like you said, there are plenty of other ways for them to find out. It just seems like a pretty weird coincidence.
I’m just glad that they sent a warning email, instead of just banning me. like I said in the blog post, I didn’t know that it was against Adsense policies at the time, that would’ve sucked if it was a “you are banned” email, instead of the warning
September 4th, 2007 at 12:13 pm
Another thing I wonder about is Stumbleupon. A lot of bloggers and websites use Stubleupon. which is pretty much the same thing except that you don’t have any control over your site getting “stumbled”.
People still click the stumbleupon button on the toolbar to Auto-surf sites. where as with Blogexplosion, you just click the Autosurf button (whatever its called) to Auto-surf sites.
Maybe theres a difference, since someone has to initially give your site a thumbs up before it gets que’d in Stumbleupon’s rotation. And it has to continue to get “thumbs up” to stay alive