If you use SiteMeter.com to keep track of your visitors and readers, this post may be important to you.

I’ve often noticed that my blogs and sites tend to be sluggish when loading in the browser. Trying to identify the source of the slowness, I’d usually look at the bottom of my browser where the various links are shown from where the site or blog tries to fetch stuff (e.g., internal servers, images, YouTube, etc.).

One link that would always pop up there was “dg.specificclick.net”.

I use Firefox as my main browser, but today I checked my sites in Internet Explorer, and what did I find? That “dg” link would start loading all of sudden, about ten or fifteen seconds after the site had loaded, and then suddenly redirect my site to the browser’s default search engine looking for “dg.specificclick.net”.

Now, the experience may differ depending on your IE browser settings, but as far as I know, my IE is set to all the default parameters (since I don’t normally use it, I haven’t had any need to “tinker” with its settings).

While in Firefox, the “dg” thingy merely causes a delay in the full loading of my site, in IE, it causes the browser to redirect to a search engine – about 15-20 seconds into the site loading. This means that readers using IE, and with settings similar or identical to mine, won’t be able to read the site because they’re taken away to a search engine instead. All this is prompted by that silly “dg.specificclick.net” thingy.

Well, but the fact that in IE I was taken to a search engine running a search on that particular link led me to some interesting info about the “dg” thingy.

As it turns out, it’s a cookie that is supposed to track a user’s browsing history. So, my IE settings apparently considered it a privacy problem and therefore triggered the redirect.

Now, why would there be such a cookie on my sites and blogs? I certainly didn’t put it there on purpose, because I’m really not interested in my readers’ browsing habits. No.

But the cookie, as I learned, is embedded in the code that you place on your site when you install SiteMeter.com.

So, I’ve done the only reasonable thing one can do in a situation like that: I’ve removed the SiteMeter.com code from all my sites and blogs.

In Firefox, the dg cookie caused my sites to load more slowly. In IE, it certainly prompted a redirect away from my sites, and other sites using SiteMeter as well by the way – i.e., if I were to read all my usual blogs in IE, I wouldn’t be able to read those with SiteMeter at all, because IE would redirect me away from them after about 10-20 seconds. Since I never use IE, I’ve never known about this issue until today.

Now that SiteMeter has been removed from all my sites, I’ve noticed that they all load much faster now, and in IE there’s no more redirect away from my sites (or any site that has SiteMeter installed).

Apart from that, I wouldn’t feel good about myself if I exposed my readers to a pernicious cookie like that – after all, IE considers it enough of a “threat” to redirect to another site.

My advice is this: if you use SiteMeter, remove it. Use another free counter, if you need a counter at all, such as StatCounter.com, for example. At least, I’m not aware of any issues with StatCounter. Or if you use WordPress or Typepad, use the service’s own built-in stats feature.

After all, who knows what other sort of rubbish SiteMeter puts into your site together with its code?

So, get rid of it. NOW!

Besides, maybe you’ll all be better off without a counter. Bloggers tend to become too obsessed with these useless stats anyway.

I’ve written about this before. Unfortunately, Robert Jago continues to lie to and con his readers.

You see, his blog was never very popular (bad spelling, uninteresting posts, etc.), so he came up with a shtick: publish a monthly ranking of the best 25 political blogs in Canada.

The only trouble is that his ranking is a fairy-tale story, because his ranking is void of any objectivity whatsoever.

But he continues to tell his monthly lies, all in the attempt to drive traffic to his site like a cheap blogging whore – or is that a blhore?

I’ve explained the problems with his “ranking” in detail and provided two examples of objective blog rankings (here and here).

People like Robert Jago, who use dishonesty and lies to publicize their blogs, give all bloggers a bad name. It’s particularly shameful, because political bloggers should strive for more credibility, but Jago’s credibility is a big fat zero.

Folks, if you go to www.WernerPatels.com (or www.WernerPatels.ca) and www.Conservative-Digest.com, you’ll see that I have reduced the width of the main column. Why? Because the number of readers who access my sites from mobile devices (smartphones, iPhone, etc.) is growing steadily, and I was told recently that the wide format I used to have in place would make it quite difficult for mobile readers, as it would require a lot of sideways scrolling and things like that.

So, I’ve tried to find some kind of middle ground – not too wide, but not too narrow either.

I hope the format works for everyone. Feedback is welcome and greatly appreciated.

As you know, I’ve been doing some “summer cleaning” of my web presence, but now, I think, I’m finally done rearranging everything.

Here’s what you must bookmark or add to your favourites if you want to follow my musings – and who doesn’t, right?

My Web Column:
www.WernerPatels.com (also at www.WernerPatels.ca)

My Blog:
www.conservative-digest.com

Note: www.WernerPatels.net now redirects readers to my Conservative Digest blog.

Finally! It’s done! I’ve finished cleaning up my site (www.WernerPatels.com), leaving only my web columns (at least 600-800 words) and some of the blog posts that have become big hits with readers as well as Google search favourites.

From now on, though, only my web columns will be posted to www.WernerPatels.com.

For daily blog musings, visit www.Conservative-Digest.com. 

This is the kind of thing that pulls at my heartstrings and can send me into a torrent of tears:

Some of you who have followed this humble blog since its inception may have known that I was lucky enough to have survived a run-in with cancer a few years ago. Although I won that little battle back then, it appears I have lost the war. Cancer is a rather merciless predator, and despite the best efforts of a wonderful group of colleagues, it has returned. This time, I am told, it is terminal.

It has been a wonderful trip, filled with joyous memories, painful tears, and the brilliant heartache that comes from a life of boundless experience. I have lived only 35 years, but I have lived them well. And so I have no regrets, but that I couldn’t longer and better know the girl I love – my miss giraffe.

To friends and foes in this odd little “blog world”, I wish you nothing but success and good health. And I remind you that, despite whatever small differences we might have, we are all sailors on this same raft.

Red Canuck, you’ll be in everyone’s thoughts and prayers.

All those who regularly take cheap shots at bloggers who happen to have a different view of the world or pursue a contrarian ideology should remember this: in the end, we’re all just human beings, as ephemeral as the day’s news we tend to get into arguments over.

Bruce Stewart has tagged me via a Facebook note.

So here are the rules:
1. Write a note revealing 25 things about yourself. Surprises and humour welcomed!
2. Tag the person who tagged you.
3. Tag 25 new people with your note.

This seems to be a Facebook tagging game, but I have decided to place a copy on my Tout Le Monde Est Fou Sauf Moi blog here as well (don’t worry; only Facebookers will be tagged).

1. My first language is English and I’m a Canadian citizen, but I wasn’t born in Canada.
2. As far as I am concerned, they stopped making good music by the mid-1980s.
3. I have a brother six and a half years older than me.
4. If given a choice, I’d like to have my current life unfold in the 1950s or 1960s instead.
5. Thanks to my mother’s side of the family, I have blue blood running through my veins – dating back several generations to old Polish aristocracy. Who knows, I might just be a very distant relation of Michael Ignatieff’s. Take that, all of you commoners!
6. If I could do some things over, I’d either be a lawyer or a literature professor.
7. I don’t care for sushi at all.
8. If I weren’t already on the wrong side of forty (forty-one, to be exact), I’d seriously consider leaving Canada and making a fresh start somewhere else – preferably, in no particular order, the United States, Britain, Australia or New Zealand. Canada, to me, is not a real country, and if it were, it’d be extremely dysfunctional and hopeless.
9. I really and truly don’t like 90% of Torontonians. The city itself is not bad, but if we could remove the people, it would really rock.
10. I’ll admit it: I love watching TV. But I limit myself to Canadian and Brit content and only watch US shows if they are of exceptional quality (very rare these days).
11. I love poutine – but only the real kind, i.e., the one available from Ashton’s in Québec City.
12. I’m a Trekker, but I am 100% positive that the next movie will bomb miserably. In fact, from what I have seen, it sucks big time.
13. I like both cats and dogs.
14. I’m a conservative at heart, but I don’t mind a “blue liberal” (in the classical sense of liberalism) party either. Socialists and commies are the same (also according to one of my former pol sci profs), and if I had my druthers, they would have been all exterminated eons ago – as would have been all the other work-shy riff-raff out there. (I’m fine with social democrats, however, who are vastly different from socialists and commies.)
15. I’m officially a metrosexual now: I had my first professional pedicure in my life a few days ago – it was a Christmas gift from my mother-in-law.
16. Judge Judy Sheindlin is at the very top of people I’d like to sit down with over a cup of coffee to discuss the state of the world and society.
17. I can forgive and forget just about anything – but not dishonesty or stupidity.
18. I believe in being on time. There simply is no excuse for tardiness.
19. I speak standard Canadian English in public, and can even do a mean Southern drawl, but would much rather use my British accent.
20. One of my favourite countries to visit but not live in: Greece (in a span of ten years, I got to see around 95% of the country). It’s certainly worth a visit – καλό ταξίδι! (Ναι, ξέρω ελληνικά.)
21. I could live on pastry alone.
22. I have an extremely fast metabolism, which is why I hardly ever gain weight, no matter how much I eat. Downside: I am always hot.
23. I never watch sports on TV or follow any of that in the news. I know it borders on treason in Canada, but I think hockey is crap and amusement for the usual residents found at trailer parks. (In my defence, I did mention under 5. that I was not a commoner.)
24. Yes, I did work for the leftist outfit CBC at one point in my life – but that was a contract position only (without any perks) and involved CBC Newsworld International, which allowed me to do my own (on-air) thing without having to socialize with the commies in the newsroom too much.
25. My favourite colour is blue – both the conservative and Obama variety.

Update: I have changed my mind. I’m going to tag some people outside the Facebook world as well (but please don’t feel obligated — I know everyone’s time is precious):

• Conservative Reporter
• Tiny Perfect Blog
• Olaf
• Buckdog
• Media Melon
• we move to canada
• Fuddle Duddle
• Letters from a Tory
• reed writes

I have begun cleaning house over at www.wernerpatels.com. In case you have not noticed, I have made the transition to providing full-length web columns on that site, rather than inane “blog posts”.

I have started deleting old posts (100 so far), leaving only the gems and my web columns (by definition, at least 600 words), of course.

I’ll have some thoughts on blogging at a later time … stay tuned.

Yeah, that new “Liberal” blog aggregator has gathered up all the bright and intelligent Liberal minds in Canada.

No, not really. That was a bit of wry humour on my part. Truth is that LiberalsOnline.ca is the exact opposite of bright and intelligent. A quick look at the front page of their aggregated posts tonight revealed several instances of the F-word (e.g., from this benighted blogger, whose blog posts reflect a combined IQ of minus 1,000 — honestly, a three-day-old embryo could produce a more intelligent blog).

Just goes to show that those bozos aren’t Liberals (or liberals) at all, as I wrote here, but socialists pretending to be Liberals — only socialists/communists (same thing according to one of my poli sci profs, and he was 100% right) can be that dumb.

Robert has made this scam the staple of his sorry excuse for a blog. He picks, manually, a bunch of blogs he follows and then ranks them according to dubious criteria. He then publishes them as a monthly Best 25 Political Blogs.

One of those shady criteria is the Alexa ranking, one that requires users to have the Alexa meter installed in their browser bar, which only a tiny fraction of users have. Those add-ons to toolbars are extremely unpopular because of privacy concerns and because such widgets have a tendency to crash the browser. Alexa numbers are therefore highly misleading.

But Robert continues on with his scam, and those listed on his ranking lap it up.

Unfortunately, there is no reliable ranking for blogs – not until some major company like Nielsen, etc. decides to develop a reliable system. The number of comments posted don’t tell the story either. Out of 1,000 visitors to any blog, perhaps two or three actually leave a comment. And when blog posts show long threads of comments, a closer look usually reveals the same three or four posters who post 20 comments each or so – again, not representative at all.

Update: Here’s the real list of the 25 Political Blogs.

Another update: Here’s a ranking based on Technorati (also objective, unlike Jago’s joke list)

One more update: Apparently, some of Jago’s readers can’t believe that Small Dead Animals and similar crap sites don’t show up in the rankings generated by simple Technorati and Google searches. It almost seems that these search engines can recognize quality, which is why the SDA et al. crap has been left off by their algorithms. If you don’t like it, go and complain to the programmers at Technorati and Google.