after installing Gigya, we received a large number of strange 404s (~14K, slightly over 1/3 of total page views):

/404.html?page=/IgnoreThis404ItsOK.htm&from=http://faiththedog.info/

They peaked on 8/7 with over 4K, since then they have been tapering off, on 8/15 there were 181

IgnoreThis404ItsOK.htm also appears in an XML file at http://media.connectedads.net/ which I believe to be an asset of the ConnectedAds widget by Clearspring http://www.clearspring.com/connectyourads which feeds ads to social web sites (hence, why I am posting on the Gigya queue)

A general post in the d.o. forum did not produce any reply, neither did a post on the Google Analytics forum

/404.html?page= looks like GA code - http://analytics.blogspot.com/2006/09/tip-tracking-404-pages.html - "urchinTracker("/404.html?page=" + _udl.pathname + _udl.search);"

CommentFileSizeAuthor
#5 Gigya404-082509.jpg36.2 KBdecibel.places
#3 gigya-404.jpg75.48 KBdecibel.places

Comments

Gigya’s picture

Gigya commented

This has nothing to do with Connected ads, which are a test we are running with Socialize ads. Clearspring also has a product called Connected-Ads, but there is no connection.

The file is being used by Socialize to solve specific issues with IE 6, and is not an error from the user's side, but part of a mechanism that prevents errors.
We uploaded a version that changes th by e use of this file a few days ago and this is why you see a decline in the number of hits.

Gigya’s picture

Gigya commented
Status: Active » Closed (works as designed)
decibel.places’s picture

decibel.places commented
StatusFileSize
new gigya-404.jpg75.48 KB

The number is creeping up again with 502 views on 8/17 - see attached image of Google Analytics (Gigya was installed on 8/4)

I like the module, but why are you creating 404s intentionally on live sites?

Gigya’s picture

Gigya commented

Hi Decibal,

The errors that you report are shown in your analytics, but users don't see anything here. This happens inside Gigya Socialize in an iframe, and has no user effect what's or ever. It's part of a mechanism (which is deprecated now) that helped solve issues with IE6 and mixed mode.

Again, as I said before your users don't see this or experience any issues at all.
We have already changed the implementation of the solution, so that it won't appear in your analytics at all. This has not been released yet, but will be released next week, as part of our August version.

Hope this helps,
Itamar.

decibel.places’s picture

decibel.places commented
StatusFileSize
new Gigya404-082509.jpg36.2 KB

Hi Itamar,

it's "decibel"

as I said in my reply to your email:

yesterday /404.html?page=/IgnoreThis404ItsOK.htm&from=http://faiththedog.info/ appeared 242 times in analytics

it is skewing statistics, and I have to explain to the client what it means, and she does not quite understand how those page views "do not count"

in the future, I do not think it's wise to introduce an intentional error in a live module/site

you are wrong about Gigya not causing any problems