Web Site Tracker

Web trackers are simple pieces of website code designed to track visitors who visit the site. As opposed to the long-popular logfile analyzers, web trackers track browsers instead of requests to the web server. They fall under the broad category of page tagging.

When a person accesses a site with a web tracker, the piece of code automatically records several pieces of information about the user. Data gathered through web trackers can include the browser and operating system type, IP address and URL, referral source, and pages viewed. Promoters of website trackers promote the software as more people-targeted, since you are getting a direct view of individuals.

Web trackers have several advantages over logfile analysis. Multiple visits are recorded by trackers because the tracking code is embedded in the browser, whereas logfiles often miss these visits because the page is cached on the user's computer. Much greater detail is also available when using web trackers, which get into the individual details of a user in a way not possible through logfiles. In general, trackers are used when a company needs more detailed, personal information than simply how much traffic is being generated.

Not everything is positive in the use of website trackers, however. Many web users object to the invasiveness inherent in websites sniffing out personal details and injecting cookies, almost always used with web trackers, on the user's hard drive. Users with high security settings rejecting such cookies and blocking information can foil a website tracker's search for information.