Delete Cookies, Inflate Net Traffic Estimates

eldavojohn writes "In my browser, I regularly go to the tools menu and clear my private data. This includes my cookies. As a result, people like me who destroy cookies by the thousands may be inflating estimates of Web traffic by up to 150 percent. People have good reasons for clearing out cookies — we've heard about bad cookies before (and I think the FCC is still investigating the issue). But every time you delete cookies, many of the sites you've visited count you as a new visitor next time."

Comments

150%?

[catbutt]

That assumes an awful lot of people do that.

I don't do it because it is a pain to constantly log back in everywhere. But I seriously doubt more than 2% of the non-slashdot crowd does it.

Re:150%?

[Beetle B.]

Use the CookieSafe extension. It'll let you easily:

1. Whitelist sites whose cookies you want to keep.
2. Blacklist cookies from some sites (doubleclick, anyone?).
3. Set most other cookies to be killed after you exit FF.

I know Firefox lets you do that anyway, but the difference is that Cookiesafe lets you do it easily.

FTC, not FCC

[Eric Smith]

The FCC has little reason to investigate cookies.

Re:FTC, not FCC

[Aladrin]

That's funny, maybe you should tell them...

http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=06/11/15/16 22251

Re:FTC, not FCC

[Flunitrazepam]

Obviously you didn't see the sesame street where Cookie Monster called Big Bird a "nappy headed ho"

Re:FTC, not FCC

[Fozzyuw]

Obviously you didn't see the sesame street where Cookie Monster called Big Bird a "nappy headed ho"

The worst part is that they didn't fire Cookie Monster him until the letter Q and the number 4 pulled their sponsorship. Of course, I think he didn't need to go on Bert and Ernie's talk radio program either because they're hypocrites themselves.

CookieSafe is my current favourite

[KenAndCorey]

Cookiesafe allows me to keep my permanent cookies to a minimum, yet allow me all the functionality of session cookies. Of course, it does inflate the stats as the article mentions. In my previous job I worked with stats quite a bit (using WebSideStory/Hitbox), and it is such an inexact science that it ranks right up there with Lies and Damn Lies.

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/249 7

Anyone have other suggested software they prefer?

Re:So what?

[Red Flayer]

If all web traffic is artificially inflated close to the same amount, then this becomes a non-issue.

True. But I'm certain some websites have a higher proportion of visitors with cookies disabled... slashdot, for example. The trick, then, in order to make discrete visitor metrics truly useful (from a marketing standpoint) is to normalize for cookies-disabled visitors. Some factors that would have to be considered are how many cookies-disabled visitors access your site, and whether disabled visitors exhibit the same repeat visit habits as enabled visitors.

This is why there is research out there to use methods other than cookies and IP addresses to identify users -- see this article from last September.

I'm sure this concept can get some VC if companies begin distrusting current traffic anlayses -- it would be a useful adjunct to traditional traffic monitoring.