What is Digg?101 Comments
- StatCounterJen, on 10/12/2007, -7/+49Hi dailydose,
We're not spyware although sometimes we are incorrectly flagged as that.
It really annoys us! And it's something you are continuously working on.
We just do exactly what is says on the tin - we track visitors to your site and provide that information to you and you alone!
Thanks for your support!
Jenni
StatCounter Team - ericodom, on 10/12/2007, -3/+43Hat's off to StatCounter on this one. Most would cave when the dollar signs began flashing.
- StatCounterJen, on 10/12/2007, -5/+30Hi neverdoit!
No way!! We refused the offer full stop.
Under the table, over the table, round the table...whatever way it was put - there was no way we would do that to our members!
Jenni
StatCounter Team - crawfishsoul, on 10/12/2007, -3/+24StatCounterJen didn't submit the article, the submitter has been around since 9/2006 and looks like this is the first time they submitted StatCounter or related.
Is it out of the question that maybe StatCounter noticed some traffic or had someone email them or maybe someone in their office reads Digg? If my company got dugg, you can bet I'd be on here replying to comments and representing my company if it would be beneficial and/or helpful to our customers or prospects.
Not everything is spam, and not all spam is bad. - thcobbs, on 10/12/2007, -3/+21And that's why I include their button on all my sites. As they say around here:
"Them's good people." - fkr3, on 10/12/2007, -3/+18Only 19 websites have PR10 and most of them are big corporations - apple, adobe, ibm, google etc.
http://www.doheth.co.uk/archive/list-of-web-sites-with-high-page-rank.html
PS. Why vote me down for saying digg doesn't really matter to statcounter? It's not an attack on digg. Statcounter is and was already hugely successful and have never needed to resort to marketing gimmics to draw attention. - Shananra, on 10/12/2007, -11/+26While I would normally agree that they should be commended for this, it somehow reeks of "publicity stunt." They got on Digg, anyway.
- bias, on 10/12/2007, -2/+14@fkr3
Because diggers don't like facts. - fkr3, on 10/12/2007, -2/+13@ rchmuru ... It's no less relevant than 3 ubuntu stories a day about an incremental increase being released, installed and reviewed. Or the token RIAA-does-something-stupid story, or the self-congratulatory circle-jerk when someone writes something positive about digg.
Digg stopped being a news site ages ago and is now really just an "interesting links" site. Just look at the frontpage right now ...
- kde got a graphic designer finally
- someone painted an xbox 360
- a token console ranking story putting wii's first
- yet another site that checks pagerank and alexa rank
- a list of free games
- a list of wireless networking myths
- a colour matcher for people unable to identify colours that match
- this blog post
- something about blair and iraq ... actual news!!
- techcrunch spam about some crap that doesn't even exist yet, as opposed to the regular techcrunch spam which is about crap that unfortunately exists
- xbox360 coming soon... in hdmi and more importantly, black!
- a teen killed in a hit & run ... actual news again!!
- an alternative to stuffit
- pictures of some guy with a big-assed nes he made
- and last, quite possibly least, some sort of feud between a blog and a review site that spilled over onto digg
It's pretty obvious digg has become "i-am-bored.com" with a tasteful design. - forteller, on 10/12/2007, -5/+15Ad-aware always marks cookies from StatCounter as spam. I really trust Ad-aware, so I don't know what to believe.
Jenni: I think it's great that you take the time to register and reply directly to us. More companies should do that kind of thing! - RadiantBeing, on 10/12/2007, -2/+12So what if this story is good publicity? That's business. You must remember that their decision to reject spammers is good policy too.
- StatCounterJen, on 10/12/2007, -2/+10Hi SRD
When you log onto the StatCounter website, we display ads to fund the service. This can result in cookies being created. As happens on any site. In fact, as you browse the web, you pick up lots of cookies.
Our point is, that we do not force extra cookies on the people who visit YOUR site. THAT is what is happening with another provider.
If you have StatCounter:
Clear your cookies.
Visit your OWN site.
You won’t see any cookies other than a StatCounter one - this means that we are NOT foisting nasty cookies on your visitors.
If you have “the other provider”:
Clear your cookies.
Visit YOUR site.
Gasp at the amount of cookies created - this is what all your visitors are being subjected to!
Does that make sense?
If you need any further info, just shout!
Jenni
StatCounter Team - StatCounterJen, on 10/12/2007, -1/+8Folks,
This was no publicity stunt! I am still reeling from the coverage this item is getting.
Oftentimes, people all get tarred with the one brush. When we found out what another provider was doing, we thought it would be a good idea to assure our members that we would NOT be following suit. That was all. It wasn't intended to generate the publicity it has...but what a happy accident!!
Thanks to one and all for your support!
Jenni
StatCounter Team - rchmura, on 10/12/2007, -2/+9@shananra GoStats was approached too. GoStats quietly declined. lol Should this be posted on digg for each stats tracker that makes an obvious decision?
- oddmanout, on 10/12/2007, -2/+7i suppose being a stat company, they know where their hits are coming from...and watch for that type of thing, so statcounterjen would come set up an account here.
- UtOh, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5@Darksheer: No, they want a cookie because they don't sell cookies.
- jonahf, on 10/12/2007, -3/+8Of course they want publicity - they put it on their blog, right? There's nothing wrong with wanting publicity, and I think they deserve it. The company did a good thing and users should know.
- CodyBrown, on 10/12/2007, -4/+9I wish it would list those other companies. That might make a more diggable story.
- HabboX, on 10/12/2007, -7/+11There is no way to verify Statcounter's claims if they don't identify the company that offered them money to generate spam. So this story is BS.
- fkr3, on 10/12/2007, -10/+14Call me cynical, but statcounter is one of very few PR10 websites. I don't think digg "matters" when you've got pagerank like that, as well as huge goodwill and massive volumes of traffic.
- beckerist, on 10/12/2007, -1/+5I find it hard to believe a company would make MORE money by avoiding the income provided by an advertising company and using the PR to further their FREE product. This seems more like an ethical decision, and hats off to them for it!
- StatCounterJen, on 10/12/2007, -1/+5DF
We're not naming the competitor because we don't believe that is good practice.
But there's no big secret about this! The info is out there. Some of our members told us about it.
This was never intended as a publicity item - we just wanted to reassure our members.
If we just wanted publicity on this, why didn't we post about this months back when we refused the offer? The only reason this became an issue is because one of our competitors has gone down this route. Which makes our refusal a bit of a selling point.
Thanks! - joeshlub, on 10/12/2007, -2/+5fkr3, I've gotta agree with you on all your points here. It didn't take very long for digg to go from a legitimate source of tech news rather akin to slashdot, into a collection of random, although entertaining, crap. I guess it's back to legitimate media outlets for news, and digg when there's time to kill.
- thcobbs, on 10/12/2007, -4/+7I find it refreshing that they are taking the high road and just saying that they refused it. It's stupid, from a corporate standpoint, to go out of your way to embarass advertisers you turn down. It will make other advertisers wary of offering you new revenue sources.
By stooping to public embarassment, they would have lost any goodwill they garnered by being upfront just turning down the money. - oddmanout, on 10/12/2007, -7/+10call me cynical but i was thinking the same things as shananra
- bobhiler, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4I believe Statscounter is referring to Sitemeter, and the advertiser is specificclick.net.
I cleared all my cookies, visited a site with a Sitemeter, and then saw 4 cookies added from specificclick.net (http://paretologic.com/resources/definitions.aspx?remove=specificclick%20cookie). I don't know who runs specificclick.net. - oddmanout, on 10/12/2007, -6/+9yup sounds to me like they just want publicity
- Tibin05, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3statcouner is awesome. I'm glad someone is sticking up for us web designers and programmers!
- astrotrain, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4Website counters are so early Internet and add an unprofessional touch to your website.
If you need them, check into writting one for your web site, or see if your ISP provides them. Third party
counters only slow down your site when your page goes to load the web counter. - dailydoseofdigg, on 10/12/2007, -4/+6I am still getting spybot blocking /statcounter every time I try to open my stats although staff expressed deep concern about being blacklisted by antispyware programs. I don't know who to believe here. Thanks for your info though.
- StatCounterJen, on 10/12/2007, -2/+4These aren't unverified claims!
We were told about this by some members. We checked it out and found out it was true! This info is out there. We just looked and found it.
There are details posted in the comments on our blog about how to check if you think your stats provider may be the culprit.
Thanks! - wacka, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3I have to agree -- I used statcounter on my my site and it did slow things down some (not that having 100 plugins on a wordpress blog won't do the same).
It seems more professional to just use an internal stats program than to stick something into your site that gives another entity info on not only your site, but also the people that visit it. Most people using a service like this don't even have a privacy policy, much less read the one put out there by statcounter. - cattar, on 10/12/2007, -4/+6Awesome. I use Statcounter for my personal website. Does this mean then that the company is doing OK financially? They have ads on their website (very non-obtrusive as well), but the only person that sees them is the website admin I guess.
- Oigen, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2makes me glad I chose statcounter instead of sitemeter, he he he. good job statcounter.
- rstarr, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3No one here listens to Mitch?
And yes it is an ad.
Just because 1 post doesn't drive their sales doesn't mean it isn't.
One McDonalds commercial wont make or break them but they still play them all the time. - smnash, on 10/12/2007, -2/+4How do Diggers get to become so cynical with the world. Lol
I think it's a good story, and sometimes good stories make news.
I'm glad they turned down this opportunity even though it was maybe an obvious business move, it still reassures me (as a Statcounter user) that they took it. - SandraR, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Kusdo's
- lemaverick, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3Well done Stat Counter. I've used SC on a number of my sites for years. Nothing wrong with flagging up & re-assuring your users that you've not been tempted by the $. And so what if you get a bit of PR out of it. Someone, somewhere in this inter-connected world would start talking about & at least you've made yourself available to talk about it.
Just be careful how high you climb the pedestal!! - StatCounterJen, on 10/12/2007, -2/+4We weren't looking fort a pat on the back....we just wanted our members to know we had done the right thing.
Then the back-patting just took off!!
It wasn't intended but boy it's appreciated! - DavidGX, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2I'm glad I chose statcounter for my blog.
- StatCounterJen, on 10/12/2007, -2/+4Bootfail - this is the only post on our blog because it was our first post! And yes - I only joined up to Diff with a StatCounter name today so that everyone could plainly see who I represent wehn I'm posting. Nothing bad intended.
Forteller - as I said, as we use a tracking cookie we are sometimes incorrectly marked as spyware. All we do is track visitors to your site, for you!
Thanks for your support folks! - SaintPatrick, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2StatCounter offers an excellent service that is simple and intuitive to use. Glad they didn't start mucking up the works with these shady bastards.
- sengo, on 10/12/2007, -2/+4StatCounter does not need an advert. It is absolutely huge, and is probably laughing at the fact that several diggers think a Digg front page will make a dent in their userbase.
- madk, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3Mad Props to StatCounter...
I'm used then on 2 of my commercial sites for about a year now and have no had a single issue. - DeskFlyer, on 10/12/2007, -7/+9It'd be more believable if they named who they refused. As far as I'm concerned, it's simply one of those unfounded feel-good claims simply to plug the services published on their own website.
- Phatlip012, on 10/12/2007, -2/+3Props to StatCounter, I use them on my site and I love it :)
- TULKUP, on 10/12/2007, -3/+4Thank you Statcounter. I'm a new user and I love it, your decision rocks!
- bobhiler, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2I did some more research. The parent company of specificclick.net appears to be Specific Media:
* http://www.specificmedia.com/why-specific-media.php
You can see that by the logo on this specificclick.net page:
* http://adopt.specificclick.net/
They appear to be using these cookies to figure out what sites you visit, and hence, what type of ads you're most likely to click on. For instance, let's say you visit a site for auto enthusiasts that has a Sitemeter. That site's Sitemeter invokes Javascript from specificclick.net that drops a specificclick.net cookie about how you've visited an auto site. Then, when you visit a site that runs ads from Specific Media, you will be served with an ad from specificclick.net for automobiles. This is called Behavioral Targeting:
* http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Behavioral_targeting
It doesn't seem like Sitemeter has updated its privacy policy to reflect the deal they did with Specific Media:
* http://sitemeter.com/?a=privacy
One issue with Sitemeter invoking a third-party ad server is that if the ad server doesn't respond, it will slow the loading of a page that uses Sitemeter for tracking. You can see users complaining about that here:
* http://expressionengine.com/forums/viewthread/49038/ - IEatHamburgers, on 10/12/2007, -2/+3StatCounter allows you to view individual visitors' stats as well, and they don't require a button (although they ask politely for you to put it on your site).
That said, Google Analytics in combination with StatCounter rocks.
As for the PR stunt - granted, they took the opportunity to use this to their advantage (I got an email this morning) but you really can't blame them for that. -
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