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Delete Cookies, Inflate Net Traffic Estimates

Posted by kdawson on from the throwing-them-off dept.

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."

2 of 217 comments (clear)

  1. Re:On the other hand... by dattaway · · Score: 5, Interesting

    and be sure to set your browser to "googlebot"

    That way no one has visited but another web spider!

  2. Re:On the other hand... by Goldenhawk · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Hmmm. I wonder if this inflates the apparent popularity of Firefox (not that I consider that a bad thing, mind you).

    After all,

    1) it's geeks who tend to both use FF *and* block cookies
    2) the FF extension architecture makes it easy to use selective cookie blocking tools
    3) FF settings allow automatic cookie deletion each time it exits, unlike IE (=IE6, at least)

    All in all, I suspect that (*IF* the subject article is accurate) FF users probably account for a disproportionately large chunk of those "re-visits".

    I bet M$FT hates that.

    --
    --Brandon / Split Infinity Music