Category: 
… and it’s time to find a new stats tool….
I just spent three hours messing with my WordPress plugins and debugging the site modifications I put in recently, assuming I had done something to cause Internet Explorer (though not Firefox or Opera) to go in the ditch whenever this site was accessed. Block of code by block of code, I plodded through all my modifications, adding them back one little bit at a time … until I discovered it was the SiteMeter statistics script that was making Internet Explorer fail. Of course the SiteMeter script was in the last of the three sidebars, at the very end… because, well, that’s where most people put it!
Internet Explorer kept putting up an error that said "Internet Explorer can’t open the internet site http://www.afewgoodpens.com." It was only after I pulled out the SiteMeter script that I tried to go to their home page … and got the same error message, referencing their site. As of a few minutes ago, it was still happening.
More information here, including tips on removing the script and shortcuts to Google searches showing wide coverage of the problem:
Sitemeter Crashing Web Sites Using Internet Explorer on August 1, 2008
Google Search: sitemeter internet explorer
Google Blog Search: sitemeter internet explorer
As if keeping up with a blog or website wasn’t time-consuming enough….
Update:
On Saturday afternoon, SiteMeter posted an explanation and apology here:
I won’t be using SiteMeter on this site any longer. I’ve switched to Google Analytics.
Comments
This entry was posted on Saturday, August 2nd, 2008 at 12:38 am and is filed under blogging, foolishness, technology. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
. I’m sorry to hear about plumbing problems at your house. I’m pretty sure that it is a quite distraction when you hope to be able to spend times on other interesting...
For what it’s worth — I just read about this very same problem on someone else’s blog. You definitely are not alone!
I use Google Analytics exclusively on my blogs these days and I love it.
Bobbie
Hi, Bobbie. Thanks for stopping by. I setup Google Analytics for the first time on Saturday morning, and I like what I see so far. It seems to have a lot more to offer than Sitemeter did, and, truth is, I hardly ever looked at the stats Sitemeter was accumulating, but I do think I’ll keep a closer eye on the Google stats.
Thanks for the suggestion.
Bye for now,
Dale
“I won’t be using SiteMeter on this site any longer. I’ve switched to Google Analytics.”
I use both, SiteMeter for the up to the minute results and Google for the really good analyses.
Also I haven’t yet figured out how to filter myself out of Google Analytics. Have you?
Hi, Daniel.
I haven’t tried it yet, but I think you can filter out certain sites or IP addresses by going to the “Analytics Settings” page then clicking “Filter Manager” just underneath and to the right of your list of web sites. “Filter Manager” takes you to another screen where you can then select “Add Filter.” On that screen, you can specify a domain or IP address to exclude. Google describes the use of filters here:
What is a filter?
I had been looking for the same thing and just found it last night. If you try it, let me know how it goes.
Thanks for the visit and the comment….