Not being content with breaking the Internet over the weekend, it seems those Google guys are now focusing their attentions on destroying analytics software.
Sitepoint are reporting that Google are currently experimenting with AJAX search results in some parts of the US, and by changing their search engine queries from /search?= to /search?#= , it means no analytics tool can tell who searched for what to get to your page.
The reason Google’s AJAX search breaks this is that browsers don’t send any information after the # hash mark. This isn’t something that analytics packages can create a workaround for — the only way to change it would be to rewrite at the browser level — and it affects log based analytics software the same as it does JavaScript based.
Some are expectng Google to create a workaround so search results only return data to their own Analytics, effectively destroying the rest of the analytics market in one sweep.
Search blogger Peter Da Vanzo … suggests that Google might be gearing up to lock web site owners into Google Analytics if they want complete search referral information. He reminds us that Google has done something similar once before.
Google seems to be broken at the moment, informing users who run a Google search that EVERY site on the web will harm your computer.
The software, when working, is able to warn users of harmful sites; but at the moment even searching for “Google” and clicking on Google.com is returning the message “This site may harm your computer”.
The Nested Elements website will not harm your computer, we are safe to use.
We’ll post an update once we’ve heard more from Google. Hopefully, they will fix the problem soon!
UPDATE: The problem has now been resolved.
UPDATE: Google have posted a blog response explaining the site warning message:
What happened? Very simply, human error. Google flags search results with the message “This site may harm your computer” if the site is known to install malicious software in the background or otherwise surreptitiously. We do this to protect our users against visiting sites that could harm their computers. We maintain a list of such sites through both manual and automated methods. We work with a non-profit called StopBadware.org to come up with criteria for maintaining this list, and to provide simple processes for webmasters to remove their site from the list.
We periodically update that list and released one such update to the site this morning. Unfortunately (and here’s the human error), the URL of ‘/’ was mistakenly checked in as a value to the file and ‘/’ expands to all URLs.
D’oh!
The Y2K bug has struck again some 9 years later with Opera 10 - the first browser ever to release with a two digit version number. Some websites are incorrectly reporting that users on Opera 10 cannot view their website as Opera 1 is not supported.
Opera discuss the problem on their official blog.
If you have any Opera specific browser sniffers in AKQA websites, now is the time to check for bugs! You know, like Windows Live email and the Bank of America have…
Loading ...
Recent Comments