4 ms·

Why do they need so many different trackers? Do each of the ads use their own tracking mechanism?

• Theodores 12y ago
  Yes! Think of some of the things the ad networks have to do: prevent click fraud, find out if their adverts actually made it above the fold, read their cookies on your computer, report back to base that the advert has been shown, personalise the advert to you, get some affiliate marketing code and actually go to some place if you actually click on the link. To get that advert on your page you would obviously need another tracking service to manage the sale of that ad inventory to whomever the highest bidder is, so you can double up on the tracking codes right away. Then you would need some independent metrics on how many people read the site and what socio-economic background they have, so a third tracker from yet another company is needed. I jest, however, it is a bit like this, and, one really good HN article that needs to be written is an actual analysis of what is really going on with these pages and what all of the tracking does.
  • tripzilch 12y ago
    And to think these sites command their visitor's machines to do a large chunk of this computing for them, by means of javascript code. One day, some kid is going to ask why the machines directing this madness are called "servers", as they are obviously not in a role of servitude ;) Great idea about that article, btw.
• crdb 12y ago
  Many ad networks and affiliates have their own tracker. You can package them all inside a tag manager, they add up quickly.