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No, they're not. It's not like they're deliberately obfuscating the information in order to shut everybody else out. They've made a technology decision which wi

No, they're not. It's not like they're deliberately obfuscating the information in order to shut everybody else out. They've made a technology decision which will probably significantly speed up searches and result in increased revenues for them. Google shouldn't be beholden to other people's business models. That said, given the amount of referrals that Google generates, and how important referral information is for a lot of things online, as a courtesy Google should probably communicate this to the web-at-large before rolling it out on a massive scale. However, they're not "cutting off" other search analytic packages. At worst they're forcing a rushed bugfix.

cakeface 18y ago
Yes they are cutting off other search analytic packages. If there is no tracking of the search term in the referring url then the analytics package has no way to determine what keywords were used to bring a user to the page. Since google provides one of the most commonly used analytics packages, Google Analytics, and owns another, Urchin, I would think that they would be the last ones to try this.
- jorgeortiz85 18y ago
  Ahh, I stand corrected. This is what I get for only reading half the article. Yeah, sucky problem. I guess we'll have to wait for Firefox 5 and IE 10 to have support for hashtags in referrals. EDIT: My point still stands that Google shouldn't be beholden to others for their technological/business decisions. Though of if it's deliberate it certainly tightrope-walks the "Don't be Evil" line.
  - sam_in_nyc 18y ago
    Hashtags in referrals will not happen. That would break a great deal of things, considering an unencoded "#" in the URL is not expected by nearly any server side scripting language. It would probably be treated as part of last GET parameter.
- durin42 18y ago
  I thought Urchin became GA? I remember early on in my analytics use the script mentioned urchin, and the newer one they provide doesn't anymore...
  - cakeface 18y ago
    I think that Urchin was the basis for GA. Urchin is still available from google here though http://www.google.com/urchin/ http://www.google.com/urchin/. The main difference that I know of between them is that Urchin has the ability to parse server logs as well as track users through javascript.
sant0sk1 18y ago
They aren't obfuscating the information, they're removing it altogether. As an analytics provider, you cannot 'bugfix' a lack of information. You're just hosed. Probably what would have to happen is for the browsers to allow for passing data after # symbols the same way they do after ? symbols. That means updating every major browser to support this. At the speed of browser development, many analytics providers may be out of business by the time that happens.

cakeface 18y ago

Yes they are cutting off other search analytic packages. If there is no tracking of the search term in the referring url then the analytics package has no way to determine what keywords were used to bring a user to the page. Since google provides one of the most commonly used analytics packages, Google Analytics, and owns another, Urchin, I would think that they would be the last ones to try this.

jorgeortiz85 18y ago
Ahh, I stand corrected. This is what I get for only reading half the article. Yeah, sucky problem. I guess we'll have to wait for Firefox 5 and IE 10 to have support for hashtags in referrals. EDIT: My point still stands that Google shouldn't be beholden to others for their technological/business decisions. Though of if it's deliberate it certainly tightrope-walks the "Don't be Evil" line.
- sam_in_nyc 18y ago
  Hashtags in referrals will not happen. That would break a great deal of things, considering an unencoded "#" in the URL is not expected by nearly any server side scripting language. It would probably be treated as part of last GET parameter.
durin42 18y ago
I thought Urchin became GA? I remember early on in my analytics use the script mentioned urchin, and the newer one they provide doesn't anymore...
- cakeface 18y ago
  I think that Urchin was the basis for GA. Urchin is still available from google here though http://www.google.com/urchin/ http://www.google.com/urchin/. The main difference that I know of between them is that Urchin has the ability to parse server logs as well as track users through javascript.

sant0sk1 18y ago

They aren't obfuscating the information, they're removing it altogether. As an analytics provider, you cannot 'bugfix' a lack of information. You're just hosed. Probably what would have to happen is for the browsers to allow for passing data after # symbols the same way they do after ? symbols. That means updating every major browser to support this. At the speed of browser development, many analytics providers may be out of business by the time that happens.