Nasty Adverts - BE GONE!
Hi Folks,
Different adverts are shown on StatCounter in different parts of the world.
So, here in StatCounter HQ, we don’t actually get to see every single advert shown to our members.
We were VERY annoyed last night to discover that some nasty adverts had crept onto the StatCounter site… Please accept our apologies for this.
We HATE nasty site-invading ads and we don’t want them on StatCounter.
HUGE thanks are due to StatCounter member Mike Miller for alerting us to this problem and helping us to put it right ASAP.
Cheers Mike 
StatCounter advertising revenue is used to fund our free service - but we only want the nicest, best behaved ads on our site…
Nasty Adverts - BE GONE!!
May 17th, 2007 at 1:31 pm
Google Ads are difficult to control, they are however easy to put up which is why most people do so.
The only way that you can control your advertising is by having all links and banners which you have chosen yourselves, on a cost per click, or cost per action (You get cash dependent on people clicking, like adsense, or on an action, such as filling in a form, or affiliate links for getting people to buy something).
These are ways to ensure that you don’t have bad adverts, it just takes more time, but the additional return can be worth it though.
I don’t understand how the Google advertising would return bad ads, there isn’t anything of that nature on here… is there?
May 17th, 2007 at 2:02 pm
Wow I am really amazed with the way you guys have handled the situation! Kudos!
May 17th, 2007 at 2:21 pm
I was pretty amazed too and really surprised that they even noticed my post and even more amazed that they took care of it so quickly.
Great job. And just one more reason why I’ll be sticking around with StatCounter.
May 17th, 2007 at 2:46 pm
Quality stuff!. yet another example of why statcounter is the best
May 17th, 2007 at 2:52 pm
What a great group! Taking the high road as always. Love ya!
May 17th, 2007 at 3:28 pm
Statcounter is a class act.
Thank you again and again for providing us this gift.
All the best,
CLKL
May 17th, 2007 at 8:21 pm
Excellent work! The true quality of StatCounter and the great relationship with their users.
May 17th, 2007 at 8:49 pm
Thanks guys, I love your service.
May 17th, 2007 at 8:57 pm
Yet another reason to keep using StatCounter - you guys rock!
May 17th, 2007 at 10:12 pm
You continue to demonstrate pure class.
May 17th, 2007 at 11:14 pm
Thanks for such a valuable service and for your integrity! http://www.webhostingmentor.com
May 18th, 2007 at 1:07 am
Hmmm…
I’m still seeing invasive survey ads popping up…
StatCounter Team Response:
On StatCounter? Well you shouldn’t be!
I’m just sending you a mail to investigate this further…
May 18th, 2007 at 1:11 am
Please elaborate on the “invasive” ads. What made them “invasive”, did they install ad-ware/spyware?
Also which locales did the ads display in? I’m just curious, as I haven’t seen any invasive ads on the site from where I live in the US.
In any case, keep up the great work! I’ve set up StatCounters for probably 20 different people so far, and everyone who uses it loves it. Thanks again for your excellent service.
-Jonah
StatCounter Team Response:
Hi Jonah,
No spyware!
The nasty adverts in question were those ones that expand and cover some of the content on the page you are trying to view, you know them? They kind of ‘invade’ the page.
We believe the adverts were shown to a number of our US members.
Thanks so much for your kind comments, and thanks for recommending StatCounter!
The StatCounter Team
May 18th, 2007 at 2:06 am
Well done guys
here in Australia we got some REALLY annoying ads once in a while, I’ll let you know when they show up from now on.
Great service, whilst we also use a paid service for all our stats (at a HUGE cost) - we find stat counter to be the simplest by far, i wish it was recognized in the industry, it would save us thousands of dollars a month!
Keep up the good work!
May 18th, 2007 at 3:04 am
Once again Statcounter demostrating the quality service they give
Cheers
May 18th, 2007 at 8:24 am
I haven’t come across ads like that before! Thanks Statcounter for keeping the site clean. Nothing worse than a site overrun with terrible ads.
May 18th, 2007 at 10:41 am
Thanks Statcounter for removing them. Yes I too hate the dreaded adverts. I constantly turn down people wanting to place ads on my site, even if they do claim to be able to “earn me money!” Yeah right!
Just who the heck wants horrible smilies anyway!? Not me.
May 18th, 2007 at 11:30 am
Haven’t seen any of the nasty ads myself, but if they were there, i’m happy you removed them before i could see them
… good job!
May 18th, 2007 at 1:39 pm
Blimey, how Statcounter has grown. I’ve been using the free version since 2005 and if I recall correctly, there weren’t too many users then (gauging from forum activity when I last checked in - and I only check the forum when I had a problem). One problem in 2 years says it all really. Quality service from a quality dot-com.
May 18th, 2007 at 5:55 pm
Not sure if this is what you’re talking about as a “Nasty Advert,” but I just got a pop-up/pop-over ad asking me to take a survey. This popped up on the Recent Pageload Activity screen.
StatCounter Team Response:
We don’t allow pop-ups on StatCounter Fresh, so something’s up…
To sort this out, we need a shot of the page and the source code where you came across this pop-up.
I’ve sent you an email so if you could get back to me when you have a chance that would be great!
Thanks!
May 18th, 2007 at 10:08 pm
Well done guys and keep up the good work.
We don’t mind the ads because the service is free
May 18th, 2007 at 10:10 pm
That’s why we can always rely on statcounter.
May 19th, 2007 at 12:56 am
Amazing. I hated those ads (usually for some car company) but figured it was the type of nuisance I was supposed to put up with.
It’s very impressive that StatCounter is so responsive to something that is simply annoying. This is a service that understands how important the user experience is.
May 19th, 2007 at 6:11 am
I believe these kind of ads are called “dynamic” ads or “dynamic” pop-ups. You’d think advertisers would learn by now just how much people hate those things. If anything, to me it’s anti-advertising; the more annoying the advert, the less likely I am to use the product or service they’re shilling!
May 19th, 2007 at 11:57 pm
Unfortunately, these tactics do work and people (presumably net newbies) click through and some presumably make a purchase based on this kind of marketing. As long as it brings in returns, advertisers will use this type of ploy, and there are always new internet users.
Statcounter have taken the responsible approach by protecting visitors from this type of rubbish - well done!
May 20th, 2007 at 2:04 am
Good work people. You really impress me sometimes
May 20th, 2007 at 7:06 am
StatCounter definitivamente tiene gente grande detrás, en su equipo.
Bien hecho!
Sigan así!!!
May 20th, 2007 at 10:56 am
I was really a satisfied customer of statcounter service, its straight forward, easy to umderstand. However I was forced to remove statcounter code from my website when I saw a famous antispyware software (Spybot search and Destroy) giving a bad tag to statcounter cookies and showing it as a spying cookies.
Any explanation to this pls as I still want to use statcounter over any other service no matter how much popularised and endorsed.
StatCounter Team Response
Hi MHK,
StatCounter is NOT spyware, but sometime we are incorrectly labelled as that. We use a single cookie to track unique visitors to your site - and this information is provided to you and only you.
If you need any further information, just let us know. We’d love to keep you as a member!
All the best,
The StatCounter Team
May 20th, 2007 at 2:09 pm
I’ve seen some of those ads quite a few times on Statcounter, they drop down across a major portion of the page. They always seemed to be for auto manufacturers. They are annoying and seem to be everywhere these days, not just here.
Thanks for the great service guys, I own a small webdesign company and I always set up all my customers with a Statcounter account for their new websites. That’s roughly 200 new signups for your service in just the last couple years.
May 21st, 2007 at 4:10 pm
No nasty ads here in the UK as far as I can see. Just to repeat what many are saying…great service! Many thanks.
May 21st, 2007 at 9:17 pm
Nice job, guys. We continue to place a high level of trust in your service. This, coupled with your response to the recent attempt to buy off your cookies, continues to reinforce our decision.
Darren
May 22nd, 2007 at 11:33 pm
To the Statcounter Team:
Thanks for taking the high road on this guys; those invasive ads from a certain car company were beyond annoying, they disrupted work flow.
We have used Statcounter since inception and swear by it.
We’ll do our best to support your future growth, and you’ll be hearing from us.
Best and cheers,
Myron
Publisher
May 23rd, 2007 at 3:13 am
Way to be cool, guys.
May 23rd, 2007 at 3:20 pm
Nasty Adverts - BE GONE! - sound like a lullaby
May 23rd, 2007 at 5:01 pm
Statcounter is the best
May 24th, 2007 at 11:46 pm
Never had a problem myself, but I did download a hosts file couple of months back that had EVERY statcounter address in it, which prevented any of my own browsers from displaying my statcounter, and it also prevented all images in statcounter to load.
I only realised the host file was to blame after going though the hundreds of sites that are listed within it. The site was, I think, tagged as being spyware. I removed all statcounter entries and the images now load including the counter, but how many other people have this in their host file, which would prevent the counter taking a hit wouldn’t it?
I’ll look for the address I downloaded this hosts file from should you wish to see it yourself.
Other than that, keep up the fine work on the service, its the best one i’ve used so far that works well with mobiles. (my site is primary aimed at, and used mostly by, mobile users which explains the low number of images).
May 25th, 2007 at 12:50 am
There was a time a few months back when Tribalfusion was dropping in interstitial ads, most annoying, pop-up blockers wouldn’t block them. I don’t know if what some have seen lately was the same thing. I had reported those and they were gone instantly. Never seen them or any others again.
But they must be geo-targeting if they are back at the old dirty tricks.
May 26th, 2007 at 10:04 pm
Cheers Statcounter. you offer a great service and its good to here you are always on top of things like this.
– Phil
May 27th, 2007 at 12:04 am
I hope that this means that you will be getting rid of that infuriating, intrusive, unwelcome, take-over-the-screen ad from monster.com.
I make a point of never doing business with companies that pay for intrusive advertising. Guess who will not be getting my business.
Signed,
Anti Spam
StatCounter Team Response:
Hi!
There shouldn’t be any “take-over-the-screen ads” on StatCounter - if you see one, please let us know and we will deal with it straight away.
As we say in the blog post, we don’t see every single advert shown to our members, so we depend on you guys to let us know if you see anything untoward.
Thanks for your comment!
PS: Tried to send you an email on this, but it came back failed.
May 28th, 2007 at 4:13 am
Hi guys,
I am in Canada, and was getting Monster.ca ads. I too thought it was part of the service.
I will keep an eye out as you suggest, screen shot and source code if I see them again.
Thanks for the great service … it and your fantastic stat setup brought us into upgrading our accounts.
Philip E.
May 29th, 2007 at 3:42 am
Yep, got one of those interstitial ads from monster.ca again, just tonight.
That was after clinkcing on “recent pageloads” for one of my projects.
Drats, forgot to check the source code. I took a screen shot though.
May 29th, 2007 at 8:14 am
good news! Thanks!
- Ron Reyes
http://www.ronreyes.co.nr
May 29th, 2007 at 9:48 am
Estamos en contra de la publicidad, esto siempre es una buena noticia.
Bien por STATCOUNTER!!
Way to be cool, guys.!
http://www.profesionalnet.net
May 30th, 2007 at 1:49 am
I am just starting with you guys and I am rather amazed at the class, quality and integrity that you have exhibited thus far. Your product works great and is simple to configure and install. I will recommend you to all my visitors! By the way do you have any plans of putting together a “site search” search engine. I’m getting desperate for one that is simple, works the way I want it to and doesn’t cost a fortune! I’m just getting started and don’t have deep pockets. HAVE A GREAT DAY!
PS - If you or any of your readers have any suggestions - please pass on my e-mail address. I’d love to hear from you!
May 30th, 2007 at 2:17 am
Thanks for removing ads and I just got a nasty grm trying to send you a trackback. Nice touch! better than just regular error message!
May 30th, 2007 at 7:42 am
You continue to demonstrate pure class.
May 30th, 2007 at 8:19 am
I’ve never seen one of these nasty ads myself, and it’s good to see that StatCounter are hot on the heels of anyone who tries to bring them into any StatCounter user’s screen anywhere in the world.
May 31st, 2007 at 11:03 pm
Your product works great and is simple to configure and install…
June 1st, 2007 at 11:12 am
There is a Google ad on StatCounter , a “Work at home filling form - Get paid $20 to $30 filling forms - Guaranteed work make money today”.
When clicking on it the message is: Not Found
The requested URL /aff.1346/ was not found on this server. Additionally, a 404 Not Found error was encountered while trying to use an ErrorDocument to handle the request.
Scam or not?
June 4th, 2007 at 12:53 am
Thanks guys, I love you all.
June 23rd, 2007 at 10:52 pm
Hate to say this, but StatCounter Rocks!!!
July 2nd, 2007 at 10:19 am
Another reason why you are number 1. Keep up the great work. You are simply awesome!!
July 16th, 2007 at 6:27 pm
This is exactly what I expected to find out after reading the title Nasty Adverts - BE GONE!. Thanks for informative article
July 20th, 2007 at 5:09 am
I have been a StatCounter junkie for two years now. And all I can say is…. all the other web counters are crap.
Statcounter is giving me all I need for my website http://www.radiojingles.co.nr. Aodhan, Id really like to see you soon.
July 20th, 2007 at 1:09 pm
thanks
July 20th, 2007 at 10:20 pm
well done guys and thank you
July 24th, 2007 at 4:42 am
This is exactly what I expected to find out after reading the title Nasty Adverts - BE GONE!. Thanks for informative article
August 13th, 2007 at 12:51 pm
I am sure it is difficult moderating all the adverts especially for such a large network. Thank you for taking immediate action, because it is bad for a visitor (or child) to see a nasty advert that wasn’t suppose to be there. Keep up the good work.