What % of surfers have http_referer empty

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jaymoore_299
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What % of surfers have http_referer empty

Post by jaymoore_299 »

About what percentage of surfers do you find having this variable empty? I have almost half, 93 out of 233, having this variable blank. Could I be measuring this incorrectly? Is there some better way to measure where they came from? I was expecting that those with this variable being blank would be far fewer in proportion.
Roja
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Re: What % of surfers have http_referer empty

Post by Roja »

jaymoore_299 wrote:About what percentage of surfers do you find having this variable empty?
I usually have about 60%.
jaymoore_299 wrote:I have almost half, 93 out of 233, having this variable blank. Could I be measuring this incorrectly? Is there some better way to measure where they came from? I was expecting that those with this variable being blank would be far fewer in proportion.
Keep in mind that it will be blank when:

- Users visit directly from a bookmark, including Firefox's terrific open tabset.
- Users that "Open in new tab/new window" the link to your site/page.
- Users have it blocked (both Firefox and Opera have a setting allowing this, and there are several programs for IE that will let you do so)
- Users have it blocked without knowing (Many of the 'security' programs do this now)
- Users visit from behind a proxy that does not provide it - very common in corporate environments, and some Eastern European countries

Thats a pretty extensive set of people that will have it blank. Its unreliable at best. Much like IP's, they can give mildly useful information, but can't be relied upon.
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