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Am I the only one that thought the query string was actually more interesting than the article? ?utm_content=bufferc2fec&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.c

Am I the only one that thought the query string was actually more interesting than the article? ?utm_content=bufferc2fec&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=buffer I'm glad that ycombinator isn't listed as the source, at least. I think it would be fairly interesting to see what kind of data they have about various social medias and link propagation. And also, a slight sickening sensation that marketers are doing this. Not that I'm surprised, it's just that I'm sure they have papers written saying that "Twitter has a 64% link click rate if you write your post like X, whereas Facebook can achieve as high as 70% if you do Y." I know it has been going on for years on the web, and decades for other marketing, but here it's plain to see. It fills me with unease, like I'm no longer in control and what I like in life is already planned out.

showerst 13y ago
those are standard google analytics campaign tags, they probably (automatically?) built the link that way before they originally shared it on twitter, and then someone cut & pasted that link to share on HN.
michaelbuckbee 13y ago
This is a pretty standard Google Analytics Tracking URL [1] - setting aside the Googleness of it (which raises a different set of issues) I look at it like the modern equivalent of an Apache Access Log. Also, not sure if this will make you feel better, but most places that are doing this type of in-depth analytics, etc. are much more often trying to bend themselves to your will ("what feature, benefit or product that people will get value out of") than to trick you into liking something you otherwise wouldn't. One way of interpreting that query string is as the answer to an implicit survey question of "How would you like to get the stories we write?" the answer in this case being: "Twitter" [2]. 1 - https://support.google.com/analytics/answer/1033867?hl=en https://support.google.com/analytics/answer/1033867?hl=en 2 - Obviously in this case it's pretty well statistically messed up by that link being posted to HN, but you get the point
- eli 13y ago
  I think the "Googleness" is in your head. Those parameters were defined long before Google bought Urchin.
  - michaelbuckbee 13y ago
    I was referring more to the differences in Google vs some other solution tracking your behavior on websites.
- eli 13y ago
  Incidentally, this is why I recommend rewriting URLs to hide UTM strings on load: http://esd.io/blog/stripping-utm-strings.html http://esd.io/blog/stripping-utm-strings.html This way they 1) look cleaner to the user (of a modern browser) and 2) if they are reshared it doens't come with a inaccurate tracking code.
seestheday 13y ago
ycombinator will be listed in the referring url within Google Analytics. The reports won't be super clean, it's really not that hard to figure out.
- rgbrenner 13y ago
  Actually, since hackernews is loaded over https, and the article is http... no referrer is sent.
  - seestheday 13y ago
    Ah, yes you're right. I forgot HN was https and didn't bother to check.
  - mik3y 13y ago
    There's a fix for this that the HTTPS site can add to <meta>, which works with newish browsers: the "meta referer" header: http://wiki.whatwg.org/wiki/Meta_referrer http://wiki.whatwg.org/wiki/Meta_referrer (Looks like HN doesn't set it.)

showerst 13y ago

those are standard google analytics campaign tags, they probably (automatically?) built the link that way before they originally shared it on twitter, and then someone cut & pasted that link to share on HN.

michaelbuckbee 13y ago

This is a pretty standard Google Analytics Tracking URL [1] - setting aside the Googleness of it (which raises a different set of issues) I look at it like the modern equivalent of an Apache Access Log. Also, not sure if this will make you feel better, but most places that are doing this type of in-depth analytics, etc. are much more often trying to bend themselves to your will ("what feature, benefit or product that people will get value out of") than to trick you into liking something you otherwise wouldn't. One way of interpreting that query string is as the answer to an implicit survey question of "How would you like to get the stories we write?" the answer in this case being: "Twitter" [2]. 1 - https://support.google.com/analytics/answer/1033867?hl=en https://support.google.com/analytics/answer/1033867?hl=en 2 - Obviously in this case it's pretty well statistically messed up by that link being posted to HN, but you get the point

eli 13y ago
I think the "Googleness" is in your head. Those parameters were defined long before Google bought Urchin.
- michaelbuckbee 13y ago
  I was referring more to the differences in Google vs some other solution tracking your behavior on websites.
eli 13y ago
Incidentally, this is why I recommend rewriting URLs to hide UTM strings on load: http://esd.io/blog/stripping-utm-strings.html http://esd.io/blog/stripping-utm-strings.html This way they 1) look cleaner to the user (of a modern browser) and 2) if they are reshared it doens't come with a inaccurate tracking code.

seestheday 13y ago

ycombinator will be listed in the referring url within Google Analytics. The reports won't be super clean, it's really not that hard to figure out.

rgbrenner 13y ago
Actually, since hackernews is loaded over https, and the article is http... no referrer is sent.
- seestheday 13y ago
  Ah, yes you're right. I forgot HN was https and didn't bother to check.
- mik3y 13y ago
  There's a fix for this that the HTTPS site can add to <meta>, which works with newish browsers: the "meta referer" header: http://wiki.whatwg.org/wiki/Meta_referrer http://wiki.whatwg.org/wiki/Meta_referrer (Looks like HN doesn't set it.)