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Anyone want to fill in a non-web programmer on what pixel-tagging is?

by gphil 17y ago

dlib 17y ago
No idea what pixel-tagging is but it seems they use javascript to load an image. The url of the image tells Google which link has been clicked on. There's some extra information in the url as well.
- angilly 17y ago
  Bingo. Explained it a bit more in a comment: http://ryanangilly.com/post/355271652/how-google-tracks-clicks-for-backpropagation#comment-31536446 http://ryanangilly.com/post/355271652/how-google-tracks-clic...
mahmud 17y ago
Typically it's called a beacon, but wikipedia calls it "web bug": http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_bug http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_bug
Tichy 17y ago
I think it is just an invisible 1x1 image on your website, that is being served from Google. So everytime your web site loads, google gets a request for that pixel, including cookies and referrer. As described here, I think they just trigger image loading from JavaScript to transfer information to the server.
lmkg 17y ago
Imagine that you want your web page to send a message "gphil clicked this link X" back to the server, but you're only allowed to request information, not gather it. The work-around that we use in web analytics, is that we request an image named "link-clicked.gif?dude=gphil&link=X." The query parameters are built dynamically with JavaScript and the image request is added as an on-click call on the link. The server is configured to accept this request and parse and log the data from the query parameters, and meanwhile returns a .gif image consisting of a single transparent pixel. This script apparently doesn't even render the pixel, it just stores it somewhere. Advanced techniques include noscript fallbacks and adding a timestamp to prevent client or server caching from messing with your data collections.
- gphil 17y ago
  That's pretty cool, thanks for explaining.
  - warfangle 17y ago
    Keep in mind, because the image involves an http get request, the host of said transparent dot can also dump a cookie on you; this is how a lot of advertising agencies track conversions for cost-per-action ads. They tend to drop them for cost-per-click ads too, just to be extra annoying :)
- jodrellblank 17y ago
  Thanks. What's the distinction here: "but you're only allowed to request information, not gather it"?

Anyone want to fill in a non-web programmer on what pixel-tagging is?

by gphil 17y ago

Anyone want to fill in a non-web programmer on what pixel-tagging is?

dlib 17y ago

No idea what pixel-tagging is but it seems they use javascript to load an image. The url of the image tells Google which link has been clicked on. There's some extra information in the url as well.

angilly 17y ago
Bingo. Explained it a bit more in a comment: http://ryanangilly.com/post/355271652/how-google-tracks-clicks-for-backpropagation#comment-31536446 http://ryanangilly.com/post/355271652/how-google-tracks-clic...

mahmud 17y ago

Typically it's called a beacon, but wikipedia calls it "web bug": http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_bug http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_bug

Tichy 17y ago

I think it is just an invisible 1x1 image on your website, that is being served from Google. So everytime your web site loads, google gets a request for that pixel, including cookies and referrer. As described here, I think they just trigger image loading from JavaScript to transfer information to the server.

lmkg 17y ago

Imagine that you want your web page to send a message "gphil clicked this link X" back to the server, but you're only allowed to request information, not gather it. The work-around that we use in web analytics, is that we request an image named "link-clicked.gif?dude=gphil&link=X." The query parameters are built dynamically with JavaScript and the image request is added as an on-click call on the link. The server is configured to accept this request and parse and log the data from the query parameters, and meanwhile returns a .gif image consisting of a single transparent pixel. This script apparently doesn't even render the pixel, it just stores it somewhere. Advanced techniques include noscript fallbacks and adding a timestamp to prevent client or server caching from messing with your data collections.

gphil 17y ago
That's pretty cool, thanks for explaining.
- warfangle 17y ago
  Keep in mind, because the image involves an http get request, the host of said transparent dot can also dump a cookie on you; this is how a lot of advertising agencies track conversions for cost-per-action ads. They tend to drop them for cost-per-click ads too, just to be extra annoying :)
jodrellblank 17y ago
Thanks. What's the distinction here: "but you're only allowed to request information, not gather it"?