If you are using Site Meter for your stats you might want to remove (or at least comment out) the tracking code until they fix the bug that is causing sites not to display in Internet Explorer.

Update 8:19am & 8:57am PST: In the comments Luboš kindly offers a good post on some alternate Site Meter tracking code workarounds that don’t require nuking the Site Meter tracking entirely. This includes an IE7 fix that will allow you to view websites that haven’t fixed the tracking code yet.

When IE7 users visit a site using Site Meter the following error prompt is shown:

When "ok" is clicked this is what happens to the page:

Upon verifying the issue, I immediately disabled the site meter code on our group blog VTOR (Update: I have since added back the tracking portion, without the IE7 offending JavaScript). According to site meter (graph below, gray color) some 43% of visitors to that site can’t get there?! Screw that, goodbye.

We’re also running Google Analytics at VTOR so we can get stats details from that until this issue is resolved, but there goes the transparency convenience that Site Meter provided. I’m not sure our group will want to put Site Meter back after this debacle. This is a serious flaw. Fortunately MakeYouGoHmm hasn’t used the Site Meter code since I learned of disturbing allegations on May 27, 2007, so IE7 browser users can view this site just fine.

This problem painfully illustrates why using third party code carries huge risks.

Sidenote and source credit: I first learned about this issue from Duncan Riley’s FriendFeed message this morning which pointed to a post by him saying the lack of this important story showing up on TechMeme has a bias .  Duncan is miffed because his publication The Inquisitr broke the story and despite several blogs linking to it including Mashable that appears on TechMeme all the time, the story isn’t showing up on TechMeme. I just visited TechMeme to verify that it still wasn’t on the current page or via search. Nothing yet. Gabe Rivera, creator of TM, has commented here in the past, maybe if/when he sees this he will offer some explanation why TM has failed to highlight this important story.

Update 9:59am PST: This story is on TechMeme now.

Now please excuse me why I go write an apology post at VTOR for the 43% of users who couldn’t get to the site because of third party code. I hope they will come back and give the site another try. Grrr, not a good way to start a Saturday morning. Fix this ASAP, Site Meter, this blows!

Update 8/4/08 7:01 am PST: Site Meter has fixed the issue and posted to their blog.

Did this post make you go hmm?

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