Free web statistics? Don’t count on it.
One of the cooler things about the web is how many free tools there are to build, maintain, enhance and enjoy web sites. A lot of tools are offered out of the goodness of their makers’ hearts.
But that’s not always the case. Sometimes the freebie is a way of setting you up for a torrent of advertising — and the makers aren’t always as upfront as they could be about what you’re in for.
For years, thousands of sites (many in the Netherlands, but many elsewhere too) have relied on Nedstat Basic, a free service that gave you a rundown on who’s been coming to your site and what they’ve looked at. The company hoped that users would upgrade to a more comprehensive paid package.
But with the sale of Nedstat Basic to German marketer ad pepper media, the free service has become Webstats4U — and the name isn’t the only change.
Webstats4U is much more of an ad-driven service. Ostensibly that’s to cover development costs, but the new owners have to be looking at earning some kind of return on the three-million-Euro purchase price.
Motives aside, Nedstat users — and more to the point, the people visiting their sites — are suddenly being pestered by popup ads. Their surprise (have a look at a sampling of irritated blog owners) is understandable. Here’s what Webstats4u.com says about advertising:
In order to finance the new developments and to continue providing you with the world’s best FREE web analytics tool in the market, Webstats4U will accept advertising sponsorships on its reporting site and will from time to time accept other types of advertising sponsorships. These advertising sponsorships will not be implemented directly into your website [emphasis added].
Ah, that little word “directly”. It should ring an alarm claxon, because it’s the kind of language marketers like to use to give themselves a loophole. It implies that “indirectly” adding advertisements to your site is fair game.
And so it is: the detailed terms of service set out an astonishing range of technologies that Webstats4u is willing to deploy in the service of antagonizing your visitors.
With the installation of Webstats4U on the site it is accepted that WMS has the right to place advertisements on the site in any format or through any channel, including but not limited to e-mail, layer ads, pops, banners and other usual formats without any forewarning and it is furthermore accepted that WMS takes no responsibility for the advertising content and that WMS shall not be liable for any losses incurred regarding this advertising.
In other words, in exchange for our “free” stats package, you’re now our ad mule. Open wide!
The subtlety of that change has already led one high-traffic, net-savvy blog owner to mistakenly conclude that a blog search engine was responsible; it was an understandable error, because the weasel words on Webstats4u’s web site do little to alert webmasters of just what they’re in for.
The moral of the story? Read your terms of service carefully, especially if you’re getting something for “free”. Check out what others are experiencing.
And guard the integrity of your web site jealously. If they’re on your site, those popup ads reflect on your personal or organizational branding. And they don’t reflect well.
Subscribe to comments on this post
September 14th, 2005 at 08:49
Weblog Tools Collection » Free web statistics? Do not count on it! says:
[...] Free web statistics? Do not count on it! Ouch! Removed Webstats4u. Do you still get popups? [...]
September 14th, 2005 at 19:13
Vida Vacia 4.1 » Estadisticas y pop-ups says:
[...] Ahora resulta que Webstats4u -el sitio antes conocido como Nedstat- incluir?° pop-ups en los sitios que audite, como forma de financiar sus desarrollos. ¬øQu?© esperan para pasarse a StatCounter? Hay una larga cadena de bloggers que se quejan, y que pueden ser seguidos mediante Technorati. [...]
September 15th, 2005 at 07:58
jeriko.one - the everyday madness says:
[...] Gefunden bei Rob Cottingham communications [...]
September 17th, 2005 at 01:25
ANJAZWEBPLACE » Webstats for free is not is so free anymore!! says:
[...] read more [...]
September 23rd, 2005 at 17:36
Cynical-C Blog says:
F U Webstats4U
First of all, I would like to thank the people who emailed me or left me comments alerting me that they were receiving pop-up ads while visiting this blog. I use Firefox which has an excellent built-in pop-up blocker so…
September 27th, 2005 at 23:35
Rob Lewis says:
Hi Rob,
thank you, your page has solved a major problem. Like many people I could not understand why I started to get pop up adverts when I visited my own site. I spent hours trying to see if I had been infected and running scans. I never suspected the NEDSTAT counter,as I have had it for years. Now, thanks to your page, I am going through all the 79 counters on my site and taking them off. I refuse to have adverts appear to my visitors.
Thanks again,
Rob Lewis-Editor of THE LAUREL & HARDY MAGAZINE.
September 28th, 2005 at 09:07
Rob says:
I’m delighted I could help, Rob. If I’ve stopped even one popup window, I consider that a day well-spent. :)
October 20th, 2005 at 09:17
popkulturjunkie.de » counterkram. says:
[...] Alle, die den ach so bösen Blogcounter von ihrer Seite geschmissen haben und durch den ehemaligen nedstatbasic- und jetzigen webstats4u-Counter ersetzt haben, sollten mal hier und hier lesen. Webstats4u sendet nämlich heimlich und per AGB abgesichert Popup-Werbung auf Eure Blogs. Unschön, das. Da lob ich mir doch den Blogounter. Der macht sowas nämlich nicht. [...]
October 20th, 2005 at 10:37
Rob Cottingham » If I could blog to the animals… says:
[...] How cool is this? I’ve been linked to by a Gentoo Penguin webcam blog out of Antarctica! (Apparently they’d been having popup issues thanks to the Webstats4U fiasco reported on here a month ago.) [...]
November 14th, 2005 at 17:06
Rob Cottingham » Who’s that knocking on my door? Ask Google. says:
[...] Many web hosts offer bundled packages that range from lousy to okay to pretty good, but analysis that offers depth without demanding geekiness is hard to come by. The free services are either limited (StatCounter only holds on to the last 100 page views) or annoying (Webstats4U inflicts popup windows on your visitors — something they don’t really make clear when you sign up). And pay services like Mint and the free services’ premium offerings are, well, pay services. (Mint has an enormous, rabidly enthusiastic following, by the way, and if you’re willing to spring for stats, check them out.) [...]
November 18th, 2005 at 09:56
Brian says:
Hi, and thanks!
I deleted everything on my website, but after uploading all the pages again, the popups were still there… Now I’ll do it again, but without the counter
November 20th, 2005 at 10:00
Obels.net Medical Weblog ★★★ says:
unwanted popup ads.
I have to apologize to my readers. Because of the use of a free statistic counter on my site, my visitors were harassed with popup ads. This company, Webstats4U, suddenly attached popup ads to the statistic counter. I removed the script. Read further: …
November 27th, 2005 at 01:42
Jeff says:
Thank you! I, too, received emails from some of my users about pop ups on my site, but couldn’t figure out where they were coming from. I noticed the change in name for Needstat when investigating the origin of these ads, and read as much as a I could on their site, trying to determine if they were the cause. Much like one of the posts above I didn’t suspect needstat because I have been using them for so long. It wasn’t until I started searching and found this page that I got the answer. Guess I didn’t read the details well enough. So it’s time to take the Needstat/Webstats4u code off the site and rely on Statcounter for now…
December 9th, 2005 at 14:12
tetley tee » I care about my readers! says:
[...] So during my break from studying I saw a message rom Iola asking me why my page had pop-ups. I was confused as hell, because I didn’t sign on for any pop-ups. I did some major hunting (wrongly accusing Dreamhost) only to find that webstats4U is sticking pop-ups into my site! I apologize to everyone for this (I noticed a few pop-ups recently too, but didn’t really think anything of it), but since Nedstats, the original service, was taken over by webstats4u, they’ve been slowly throwing pop-ups in every now and then. [...]
February 16th, 2006 at 17:35
micheailin says:
Hey! Hey! Thanks for confirming my exporience
on 2 of my SAOIRSE32 websites today. I was getting these really malicious ‘iLead’ pop-ups that took over. I took the Webstats4u off, and they disappeared. Interestingly enough, so far the Livejournal site I use Webstats on for each post does not seem to allow the ad through although it still gives me the stats. I hated when the Nedstats changed. They went from a good experience to garbage and now pure shite.
Cheers,
micheailin
http://fenian32.tk
February 16th, 2006 at 17:37
micheailin says:
‘experience’ even!
March 24th, 2006 at 07:56
MuslimWays says:
same as “micheailin” I got the same problem, I kept getting iLead pop-up which was very unsuitable for my website, specially the images they had on it.
I couldn’t find out what code made the pop-up to appear, but then realised it was cos of webstats4u.
I am looking forward to remove the stats from them, never again I am using their “free” stats counter.
March 28th, 2006 at 07:41
Logdy says:
Just find a good website statistics service. It is easy to find :)
March 28th, 2006 at 10:28
Rob says:
Interesting service, Logdy — and possibly the shortest Terms of Service agreement I’ve ever seen. Do you folks have a business model, or is this something you’re doing just because it’s good for the web?
June 22nd, 2006 at 20:18
GreenReaper says:
Gah! Of course, I didn’t see them because I use Firefox, but I’m sure my visitors did! I’m switching to Google Analytics – they provide far better stats anyway.
August 14th, 2006 at 12:46
3dogs says:
It gets worse. Now Webstats4U install spyware…..
and porn popups on childrens sites….
August 29th, 2006 at 06:32
Volunteer church webmaster says:
Gambling pop-ups and other negative advertisers on a church website! Disappointing business tactics, indeed!
Try Statcounter.com — They’re a reliable resource! And they provide better information, too!