NONE: Re: ONLINE-ADS>> Weird Log Data
Re: ONLINE-ADS>> Weird Log Data
richard_at_tenagra.com
Tue, 1 Dec 1998 09:31:20 -0600 (CST)
Thanks to everyone that responded to my post about the weird
log data. I think the right conclusion, as all of you said,
is that the clicks were caused by a home grown spider from
an internal server at the Andrew Corporation, a wireless
telcom company.
Here is what I think happened, specifically:
Our HTML banner was running throughout the Small Business
section of Excite. It was basically a form. The values in
the form were unique URLs that led to Tenagra's server, and
then were redirected to the appropriate part of the client's
site. We had a JavaScript that, when a person selected
something in the pull-down menu, automatically submitted the
value. They didn't have to push a "submit" button.
The spider came along and simply followed the unique URLs as
if they were links on the page. Since the banner appeared on
several pages in the Small Business section of Excite, and
the spider indexed the whole section, it hit the banner
several times (about 2300 times to be more precise).
Looking back on what I wrote about spiders not indexing
dynamically generated HTML, I realize now that is a pretty
dumb statement. Of course they can. But that is not exactly
what I meant. What I meant to say is that most target URLs
on banners nowadays are rather complex strings of variables
being passed off to a program or a database, which then
redirects a visitor to the right place. Changes in the
string a variables can still put you in the same place. If I
were a spider, I wouldn't want to follow such URLs for fear
of indexing the same information over and over again.
But if I'm a dumb spider, I guess I have no fear of such
things.
Since seeing this rather dramatic demonstration of how a
spider can screw up click counts, I've begun wondering just
how serious a problem this is. How much of the traffic
generated by any site is really spiders? And is there a way
to protect yourself?
richard
--------------------------------------------------------
richard hoy
moderator, online advertising discussion list
vice president, marketing and client promotions
the tenagra corporation
http://www.tenagra.com/
p: 281.480.6300 | f: 281.480.7715 | e: rhoy_at_tenagra.com
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