Google Analytics - Yahoo is reading the javascript!

Following an unexplained drop in rankings for one of my sites on Yahoo, I thought I would dig around a little just in case there was a problem with the site or some other obvious reason my site had taken such a hammering.

It's white hat with no hidden text or any other tricks. I've weathered various updates on all the search engines and never usually bothered about them too much. Eventually, it evens itself out.

However, something doesn't feel right about this particular drop. Maybe it's nothing but a temporary abberation? I really don't know but I would like to hear other viewpoints.

Anyway, I wondered if maybe Yahoo had taken to penalising inbound links from Blogger, for example? I had added a single link in a post on my blog. Only time I've done it and it sort of coincided with the demise but another site also linked to in the same post hadn't moved.

I was just about to chalk it down to the whims of SE voodoo when I remembered Google Analytics. It's the only site I was using Google analytics on.

Part of the javascript is "urchinTracker();" so I searched on Google for it thinking that maybe there may be some mentions of slow server responses stalling page loads for sites using Google Analytics. As I expected, various discussions but nothing I wasn't already aware of.

Then I searched Yahoo using the same term: results from Yahoo Uk here and Yahoo.com here

What's really interesting if you examine the results is that the term, "urchinTracker();" shows in the returned results preceeded by "uacct = "UA-xxxxxx-4", the user account number, meaning that Yahoo is reading the javascript and returning these sites.

Checking the cache reveals nothing of this code but examining the source code on any site returned invariably shows the Google Analytics urchinTracker() code. Which means Yahoo is reading the Javascript to find it.

Thoughts anyone?

 

I had one of those Eureka moments.

Sites running Google analytics are effectively data gathering for Google which is allowing it to gather massive amounts of search data on its competitors, namely Yahoo and MSN.

With Analytics installed on a site, Google is able to determine not only its own search data but that of Yahoo and MSN -- where the traffic has come from, the search term, the whole nine-yards! Everything.

From a Yahoo perspective, I wouldn't like revealing my key data to my main competitor. After all, that information is a closely guarded industrial secret!

So what would I do if I were in Yahoo's position ... or MSN for that matter? Look for the tracker code and begin dropping those sites using it, that's what. How else could my key data be protected from my main competitor?! It would take a small algo tweak but it would be a necessary step, in my view.

Shrewd move by Google in the first place and with a little thought, an obvious reaction from Yahoo and perhaps MSN soon, to Google's spy-in-the-site data collecting of competitors industrial secrets.

 

Yahoo dropping sites that use analytics would be a massive scandal if they get caught and I don't reckon they will be doing it.

You are right in saying google has a huge amount of data with Analytics (which is why I would only ever use it on sites where I would be happy for them to see the traffic).

 

I have been running Analytics on a few sites and not noticed any drops (rather increases from some SEO).

I agree with Mad4 that there would be a massive scandal there if that happened.

 

i don't think it'd be as much of a scandal as you'd think.

 

It would be a scandal on this forum anyway.

Just doing a few searches on Yahoo for my urchin tracker ID and it is indexed. This makes it pretty clear which sites are mine for anyone who wants to know.

The tracker code is UA-123456-1 for your first site and UA-123456-2 for your second and so on.

 

I don't think yahoo would penalise sites because of analytics alone - but why are they indexing the javascript?

 

I wondered that very thing myself and speculated it may be because they were collecting data on which sites were using Analytics, however, DaveN postulated it could be because of all the f*** ups, slow server response times & 404's returned from Analytics, therefore causing breaks in the coding.

Dunno if that's the case or not but I do know a site I was using Analytics on bombed.

It does also beg the question of whether it is in Yahoo and MSN's best interests to allow Google Analytics to have unfettered access to so much information?

 

Update:
I was convinced Google Analytics, either through slow server responses or by Yahoo design, had something to do with an inexplicable drop in rankings for one of my sites from a top spot in Yahoo.

I removed analytics from the site on the same day I posted this thread. The site is now back to its previous position. It had dropped over 60 places.

Conclusion:
Slow server response times interfering with Yahoo Slurp bot or Yahoo quietly demoting sites running Google Analytics?

I don't know one way or the other but if you are currently running a site with Analytics and it inexplicably drops down the ranks in Yahoo you may want to rethink whether you want to run Google Analytics on it or not. At the very least until server response times are a bit faster.