[WHATNEXT?]

I downloaded Adobe Flash Player afer Googling it. I have noticed when I refresh a FR page, on the bottom it says waiting for FR (normal thing) and then it says waiting for www.google-analytics.com. So, did I download a tricky version that let's Google track all by FR (and maybe everything else) viewing?

If so what can I do? I've always had problems when I have to load an update of Adobe anything when using Firefox. The last time a very kind Freeper, Doctor Bull Dog, gave me step by step instructions and it worked. This time the directions on Adobe seemed different. I had also just downloaded Firefox 4.

Please speak C O M P U T E R I Z E V E R Y S L O W L Y. Step by step. Any help would be appreciated.

[RC51]

This is nothing nefarious. Lots of sites use Google Analytics to look at aggregate data about their users browsing experience. It helps the administrators of Free Republic answer questions like:
What percentage of Freepers use IE vs Firefox.
What percentage of Freepers have javascript enabled.
What was the most popular topic yesterday, this week, last year (including lurkers who didn’t post).
What pages are producing errors.
etc.

If this still creeps you out then you can block google analytics from all sites that use it by using FireFox browser with the “adblock plugin” and site-block www.google-analytics.com/*

[Moose Burger]

It has nothing to do with Adobe Flash Player. It’s on the source code of the Free Republic page, that doesn’t change when you install something on your computer, and most certainly was put in there intentionally.

[Red_Devil 232]

Do you have the Addon Ghostery installed on FF-4?

[smokingfrog]

Urchin has become one of the more popular solutions for website traffic analysis, particularly with ISPs and web hosting providers.

[humblegunner]

It’s coming from the Blogger’s forum.

Those dang blogs are bleeding nefarious infectious diseases all over the place.

[Drango]

S o w h a t? Google Analytics isn’t a bad thing. Webmasters use it for a thousand reasons and it doesn’t tell much about you. I t d o e s s a y w h i c h s i t e y o u c a m e f r o m a n d w h i c h s i t e y o u l e a v e t o.

[Salamander]

I use it.
It’s not only harmless, it’s working to make *your* FR experience better.

By examining your stats, you can find out what pages are ‘taking too long to load’, aren’t working at all, where/why people are ‘abandoning’ your site, etc.

It’s a good tool for webmasters who want to make their vistors’ experience as good and useful as possible.

[Delta 21]

Someone out there is tracking every click that every person at every computer makes.

Scary, huh?

[GoMonster]

you probably need to refresh your browser cookies. Or someone from the Grassy Noles!!!!! lol

[Paraclete]

Download IE9 and block tracking.

[Domangart]

One of those free Adobe things tracks every web site you ever were at. It is in one of those unseen micorcrap files.