[deport]

Curious........ How does this system work whereby an article posted on FR with a link back to your site creates a hit countable by Google analytics? Are you saying Google Analytics is monitoring every visit to your site?

If so and the following on Google Analytics is supposed to be the trigger then I think you have an issue with Google Analytics: “Paste the Google Analytics tracking code into each of your website pages and tracking begins immediately.”

Playing to the ‘what’s Google doing’ theory on FR won’t get your issue resolved or answered. You need to be discussing this issue with Google using your contract with them and looking for resolution or your money back. FR isn’t the source of your problem. JMO

[Richard Poe]

deport: Playing to the ‘what’s Google doing’ theory on FR won’t get your issue resolved or answered.

Actually, what I was hoping to accomplish by posting this article on FreeRepublic was to solicit the opinions of intelligent people with greater knowledge of the Internet than I have, who might be able to shed light on this issue and help me understand whether or not the discrepancy I discovered in Google Analytics' traffic report of January 31, 2009 is innocent or malicious.

Either way, the information I reported has potential repercussions for FreeRepublic, and logically should have been of interest to Freepers.

Sadly, my post failed to generate intelligent discussion. Instead, it generated strong and determined opposition of a most curious kind. This has been a learning experience, to be sure, but the lessons I learned here are not the sort I expected.