I’ve had a few pages Stumbled before, but never like this. Not even close. It got me thinking… “are most Stumblers like me?”.

I Stumble a lot myself. I probably spend at least a half hour every day Stumbling, sometimes more. The three things I love the most are lists, images, and anything to do with Libertarianism. One of the reasons I got into Stumble is because there was so much pro-freedom content available and it seemed, unlike Digg, that the Stumble crowd was very non-partisan. Or at least, not into party politics.

While the assertion made in the title is purely an educated guess and contains no statistical data, 20,000 visits from StumbleUpon is a pretty big deal. And apart from a few comments and emails that seem to believe Democrats somehow represent Libertarian values, most of the comments and e-mail I got from that post were very much in support of true American liberty.

This tells me that a huge segment of Stumblers enjoy lists and are not in favor of the current two party system.

That makes me proud to call myself a Stumbler.

Google Analytics is decent, but it’s a little complex for my basic needs and doesn’t operate in real time.

Until now there hasn’t been any other options. Thanks to Clicky, we now have something fresh on the table.

Clicky calls itself “web analytics 2.0″, and I for one find it a very fitting label. Compared to the other stat providers, Clicky offers far more tools and goodies.

Basic Features on Free Accounts
-Customizable dashboard
-Clean interface
-Visitor details
-Track custom data
-API (Application Program Interface)
-TagClouds
-Data export
-Track outbound links
-Track file downloads
-Stats via RSS
-Real time stats
-FeedBurner integration
-Google Maps integration
-IP Tagging
-IP Filtering
-Works with visitors who have JavaScript disabled
-Secure web site support (SSL/HTTPS)
-Full dynamic referer tracking
-Public statistics
-Affiliate system

If you’re a Wordpress widget fan, you’ll be happy to know that Clicky also provides Wordpress widgets ready to lock and load. For the code junkies like myself, it’s a simple process of dropping the code snippet into your footer file and you’re good to go.

In fact, I had real time data coming in just two minutes after installing the code.

Bloggers looking for a good stat provider will definitely want to give Clicky a try. You won’t regret it.

Google Analytics is decent, but it’s a little complex for my basic needs and doesn’t operate in real time.

Until now there hasn’t been any other options. Thanks to Clicky, we now have something fresh on the table.

Clicky calls itself “web analytics 2.0″, and I for one find it a very fitting label. Compared to the other stat providers, Clicky offers far more tools and goodies.

Basic Features on Free Accounts
-Customizable dashboard
-Clean interface
-Visitor details
-Track custom data
-API (Application Program Interface)
-TagClouds
-Data export
-Track outbound links
-Track file downloads
-Stats via RSS
-Real time stats
-FeedBurner integration
-Google Maps integration
-IP Tagging
-IP Filtering
-Works with visitors who have JavaScript disabled
-Secure web site support (SSL/HTTPS)
-Full dynamic referer tracking
-Public statistics
-Affiliate system

If you’re a Wordpress widget fan, you’ll be happy to know that Clicky also provides Wordpress widgets ready to lock and load. For the code junkies like myself, it’s a simple process of dropping the code snippet into your footer file and you’re good to go.

In fact, I had real time data coming in just two minutes after installing the code.

Bloggers looking for a good stat provider will definitely want to give Clicky a try. You won’t regret it.

Dear Eric,

The chatter in the blogosphere has gotten to the point that we feel we need to go outside of our companyblogand set the record straight regarding the SiteMeter utilization of the specificclick.net cookie. We have not addressed any comments in the blogosphere directly until now as we have made an official post on our own blog regarding this matter and have responded to every single email inquiry made directly to us via email and updated our privacy policy.

To be clear, SiteMeter fully vets out all potential 3rd parties that we work with to make sure that they are reputable companies that are completely above board and are industry leaders. In keeping with this, we did extensive due diligence on Specific Media and found them to be a trustworthy and reputable company. In fact, Specific Media is a board member of the Network Advertising Initiative (NAI) (one of 10 companies) which is tasked with the protection of consumer privacy on the Internet and related legislative issues. We found that Specific Media’s technology completely protects consumer privacy and also allows users to permanently opt out of the cookie if they so choose to do so via the NAI website, which was a big factor in us choosing Specific Media. In addition, many of the Internet’s biggest web publishers utilize Specific Media’s technology including Foxnews, CBS, NBC and Time.com. These companies utilize this technology in the same way that we are using it, to provide useful information about the users who visit their websites so that they can create relevant content on their websites. The only difference is that SiteMeter, which is primarily a free service, has licensed the technology and are passing it onto our customers.

The specificclick.net cookie is being inaccurately characterized as Spyware, as it is only a cookie and does NOT install any software. The specificclick.net cookie is NOT spyware. The specificclick.net cookie performs no such activities that can be construed as spyware. We cannot control the fact that anti-spyware software companies incorrectly mark cookies as spyware. However, the specificclick.net cookie IS a cookie that enables SiteMeter to accurately provide true unique user counts, user demographics, content interests, heat mapping and other useful information about your website’s visitors, see a full list here.

SiteMeter is a community driven company and we would never do anything that would compromise the integrity of our customers or their users’ privacy. All of our customers can opt out by requesting that we move them to a separate server that does not include the specificclick.net cookie or you can simply begin using the HTML version of our code which does not include the specificclick.net cookie. We have also posted a survey on our homepage where customers can vote if they think this type of information is useful. As previously stated, we are a community driven company, the SiteMeter community is what drives our innovation and development. We feel that this information will help our customers attract more users to their site and keep them engaged in relevant content offerings. If our customers vote on the site that they do not think that certain information is useful, then we will not provide that information.

We hope that clearly defines our use of the specificclick.net cookie and that SiteMeter has in no way sold out to Spyware, nor would we engage in any such activities. We are strictly committed to providing the best service to possible to our customers. We hope that this will help earn your trust and that we may be able to have you as a customer again.

Thank You,

SiteMeter Team

Since my original post, this blog has received about 250 to 350 visits per day searching for information regarding Sitemeter’s sell out to spyware advertisers. And since that first post, the blogosphere has been working overtime making sure that readers and other bloggers are aware of the devastating decision made by Sitemeter.

The following illustration was posted over at Debbie’s Blatherings.

Many of you use a service called Sitemeter to monitor your traffic; I do, or at least I used to. According to this post, the service is allowing a third-party spyware firm to plant cookies on their customers’ Web site visitors. The company was also apparently unwilling to respond to allegations, but did admit to at least one user that they have been beta testing a third-party cookie.

I have removed the Sitemeter counter from Blatherings, Inkygirl, and my Filk FAQ, will be removing it from my other blogs as well. I’m disappointed because I have been using Sitemeter’s service for several years and been happy with it up to now, and also just bought an upgraded account for Inkygirl.

Debbie isn’t the first to yank the Sitemeter code. I myself removed it from several blogs and I’ve seen countless posts over the past two weeks from bloggers who said the same.

It looks like this headache Sitemeter has created for itself isn’t going away anytime soon. This, my friends, is why you should NEVER deal with anyone who is could in any way be associated with spyware.

Just sayin’…

-Eric Odom

While Sitemeter may not have answers, they at least have a response.

Hello,

Thanks for your email.

The cookie you are seeing is from a trusted partner who we are working with to provide more intelligence to you about your visitors. In the past few days we’ve begun beta testing this cookie.

Over the next few months we will be rolling out enhancements to our service that will offer you more information about your users like their other content interests and demographics (a la Quantcast). In addition this cookie will allow us to offer other new useful features in the future, including tracking Unique Visitors, Heat Mapping etc.

We believe that this new information along with our current services we already provide will be of great benefit to our users. Keep watching our page for announcements regarding these upgrades and changes. We would also ask that you use discretion in sharing this information. We are trying not to show our hand to our competitors.

If you would rather not participate in this process we can offer you a couple options -

1 – If you replace your current Java code with the standard HTML Sitemeter code the cookie will no longer be issued.
2 – We can move you to a new server that will be restricted from the cookie process.

If you would like to move to the restricted server please let us know and we will create a new FREE upgraded account for you. We won’t be able to transfer any historical data, but you will still be able to log into your old account and view your old account stats.

Thanks,

The Sitemeter Team

“The cookie you are seeing is from a trusted partner who we are working with to provide more intelligence to you about your visitors.”

Not only is this an admission, it’s also a defense of the spyware cookie.

Shame on you, Sitemeter. You should know better than this.

-Eric Odom

This growth has allowed me to view some very interesting statistics. It was difficult during the first month because I knew that the stats were skewed due to such small amounts of traffic. Now, however, the stats are large enough to actually be taken seriously.

The most surprising statistic has been the user browsers. Let’s take a look.

Firefox 47 %
MS Internet Explorer 33.8 %
Unknown 8.8 %
Safari 3.7 %
Mozilla 3.3 %
Opera 1.8 %
Netscape 0.3 %
Camino 0.3 %
Konqueror 0.1 %
K-Meleon 0 %

Clearly, Firefox is walking all over Microsoft’s IE Explorer. Also, I would add that the majority of our network readers come here for POLITICS. If the entire site, not just my blog, were geared towards the tech community, one would expect browsers other than IE to be used. But for a political site to be sitting at 47% you have to consider the implications.

In Other Browser War News

In the small to medium size business market, Firefox is enjoying strong gains.

Firefox’s share of the SMB market increased by 1.35% in February alone to reach 38.95%, while Internet Explorer saw its share drop 0.73% to 56.95%.

And in Europe Firefox is crushing Microsoft in the great browser wars.

A survey carried out between the 5th & 11th of March has shown that FireFox has overtaken IE7 in 14 of the 30 European countries involved. This must be seen as a blow for the Microsoft browser surely, IE7 is a major update and the fact that it’s being shipped out to most PC’s on the planet has still not stopped FireFox climbing the percentages.

Needless to say, Firefox is quickly becoming a major player in the browser realm. I have yet to meet a new Firefox user who tries the browser, and then switches back to IE.

Interesting. Interesting indeed.

-Eric Odom