Exact Domain

Exact Domain

Think You're Anonymous? Google Analytics May Prove Different (readwriteweb)

It's no exaggeration to say that, sometimes, anonymity is a matter of life and death. Which is why it's important to know just how trivial it is to track down an "anonymous" blogger using their Google Analytics code. Andy Baio, who runs the popular linkblog Waxy.org posted Wednesday about using simple tools like eWhois and Statsie to unmask several bloggers. _Sponsor_ Baio says that tracking down a blogger by GA is less likely than by IP address or another slip-up, but "it's also more accurate. Hundreds or thousands of people can share an IP address on a single server and domain information can be faked, but a shared Google Analytics is solid evidence that both sites are run by the same person." ## How He Did It You'd think that this would take some _serious sleuthing_ techniques right? Well, thinking of tracking bloggers using their GA code seems some hoopy thinking - but the method isn't hard. Basically, Baio plugged the anonymous domains into eWhois: > Using a sample of 50 anonymous blogs pulled from discussion forums and Google news, only 14 were using Google Analytics, much less than the average. Half of those, about 15% of the ...

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Why Does Google Give So Much Ranking Love To Exact Domains