SmugMug adding Quantcast web bug to our sites?

[jbstrick]

Someone at SmugMug has modified my website and the following code has been inserted into all of my web pages;


<!-- Start Quantcast tag -->
******** type="text/javascript" src="http://edge.quantserve.com/quant.js"></********
******** type="text/javascript">
_qacct="p-33GsugQTR-pOM";
if(window.quantserve) {
quantserve();
}
</********
<noscript>
<img src="http://pixel.quantserve.com/pixel/p-33GsugQTR-pOM.gif" style="display: none" height="1" width="1" alt="Quantcast"/></noscript>
<!-- End Quantcast tag -->

It appears this is a web tracking and marketing tool.

Can anyone shed light on this? I would think we would have been notified of any changes.

[jim_h]

Hmm I see that on my pages too. Initially I thought, well, here we go - SmugMug is starting down the ad-server path, and I don't want my site involved in that, in any way shape or form. But QuantCast describes themselves as a 'site rating' service. Maybe this is the route to some meaningful page viewing statistics. Let's see what the official reply is before we redline.

[Andy]

We are *not* repeat *not* putting ads on our site.

[Baldy]

Maybe this is the route to some meaningful page viewing statistics.That's exactly what it is. When new subscribers consider us or the press thinks about covering us, the question often comes up about whether we've got momentum and will be around or are getting beat by competitors. We get hurt on sites like Alexa and quantcast (http://www.quantcast.com/smugmug.com) because (a) we allow people to use their own custom domains so those services don't count that traffic as SmugMug traffic, and (b) we use ajax to load images fast but since it's not a new page load it doesn't count for page views.

So the press say, "Eh. These guys aren't for real."

We figure if they're going to collect data on us and report it, we might as well make it possible for them to do it somewhat more accurately by including SmugMug sites that use custom domains.

Quantcast now more realistically shows us at around 500 for traffic.

[Baldy]

Hey everyone,

A good and concerned customer sent an email to Don and I pointing out the concerns on this thread. The honest answer is it didn't occur to either of us that this was of any significance. That's our fault because it obviously was and we appreciate the heads-up. I didn't check back after my post because I figured no one would care.

To clarify how we operate, we really do need to make changes to the site almost daily as we do now for a whole variety of reasons. If we were to explain ourselves on all of them you'd die of boredom and progress would slow way down.

On the other hand, if it's something that affects you, we absolutely want to be transparent. In this case it didn't occur to us that anyone would care, including our own empoyees, so it became just another ninja fix and now you probably know more than even our support heroes do, unless Andy spread the word internally.

Sorry for the confusion.

[Kormac]

Hrrrm, the QuantCast javascript appears to be throwing up a Javascript error on my page, which is preventing the javascript slideshow from working.

******** language="JavaScript" type="text/javascript">
_qacct="p-33GsugQTR-pOM";

(function() {
function loadQuantcast() {
var s = document.createElement('script');
s.src = 'http://edge.quantserve.com/quant.js';
document.body.appendChild(s);

if (typeof quantserve == 'function') {
quantserve();
}
}

YE.addListener(window, 'load', loadQuantcast);
})();
</********

The error in question is: "YE is not defined."

Browser is FireFox 2.0.0.6.

Laurence

[Kormac]

Bah -- It looks like AdBlock/Filterset-G was responsible -- Disabling AdBlock causes the site to behave correctly.

Although this does raise the issue that a user who uses AdBlock will not be able to use my site correctly... :(

Laurence

Hrrrm, the QuantCast javascript appears to be throwing up a Javascript error on my page, which is preventing the javascript slideshow from working.

******** language="JavaScript" type="text/javascript">
_qacct="p-33GsugQTR-pOM";

(function() {
function loadQuantcast() {
var s = document.createElement('script');
s.src = 'http://edge.quantserve.com/quant.js';
document.body.appendChild(s);

if (typeof quantserve == 'function') {
quantserve();
}
}

YE.addListener(window, 'load', loadQuantcast);
})();
</********

The error in question is: "YE is not defined."

Browser is FireFox 2.0.0.6.

Laurence

[Andy]

Bah -- It looks like AdBlock/Filterset-G was responsible -- Disabling AdBlock causes the site to behave correctly.

Although this does raise the issue that a user who uses AdBlock will not be able to use my site correctly... :(

Laurence:dunno I just installed AdBlock and Filterset-G and did not get any errors at all on any SmugMug site.

What's the direct link to your site / page where the error was?

[bigwebguy]

Bah -- It looks like AdBlock/Filterset-G was responsible -- Disabling AdBlock causes the site to behave correctly.

Although this does raise the issue that a user who uses AdBlock will not be able to use my site correctly... :(

LaurenceSounds more like you had a bad javascript file or something. Unless you were telling adblock to block external scripts from smugmug.com :dunno

[Jason Dunn]

Although this does raise the issue that a user who uses AdBlock will not be able to use my site correctly... :(

I don't mean to fan the flames here, but speaking as a Web publisher who earns his full-time living from online advertising on his Web sites, I don't have much sympathy for anyone that uses AdBlock if it screws up Web sites on them. Anyone that feels they have a right to "re-mix" someone else's Web site and strip it of ads deserves whatever broken experience they end up getting.

And to keep this post on-topic, I support Smugmug tracking the number of people looking at the photos on their service - this code doesn't violate anyone's privacy, so I see no problem with it (though maybe offering some of the paranoid people a way to turn it off might be a good idea, but only devote resources to this if enough of them complain).