Has The Internet Lost Its Mind?

[Deverill]

Hey gang,

 

I have seen, several times and on several different hosts, really bizarre entries in the referer parts of logs. For instance - my logs say that someone came to my Key West Daycare site from www.precisionintelligence.com which is an affiliate program that has absolutely nothing to do with Key West, daycare or especially our particular site.

 

Whassup wit dat? Any ideas?

Edited September 13, 2003 by borfast

[borfast]

Jim, try accessing your raw log and look for the HTTP request containing that URL. On that line, take a look at the user agent part and check what software was used to access your site.

 

There are two possibilities coming to my mind. For instance, if the user agent is something like "PHP 4.3", it means someone is using a PHP gateway/proxy installed on that server, to access your website.

 

Also, if I'm not mistaken, there are some browsers that sometimes will send the referrer HTTP field with the current URL when you visit a different URL.

i.e. someone was browsing precisionintelligence.com and then entered your website address on the browser and pressed enter. The browser, instead of not sending the referrer HTTP field, set it to the current URL (precisionintelligence.com) and sent it to the server.

 

I never fully understood this either, though

 

PS - edited your post to remove the live link.

[Deverill]

Thanks for the info! Good catch on the link - I didn't notice the cut/paste made it a real link (stupid computer - slap!)

[SEO]

Also, if I'm not mistaken, there are some browsers that sometimes will send the referrer HTTP field with the current URL when you visit a different URL.

i.e. someone was browsing precisionintelligence.com and then entered your website address on the browser and pressed enter. The browser, instead of not sending the referrer HTTP field, set it to the current URL (precisionintelligence.com) and sent it to the server.

 

Concur [Thumbs Up Raul]