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Comment by axod | Hacker News Reader

JS based:

  * Can record java version, flash version, other plugin info
  * Can record screen size, browser window size, color space
  * Can detect and record ad block presence

etc

Both have their uses.

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Enough sites use Google Analytics wrongly (by including it at the start of the page rather than at the end of the page) that I have used AdBlock+ to block it.

Edit, since someone has downvoted this comment without offering a contrary opinion:

My comment is an argument against trusting figures on ad-blocking obtained using externally hosted javascript. If you host the analytics javascript yourself, no-one will be motivated to block you. And the reliability of statistics such as colour depth and browser window size are probably unaffected.

I use Adblock Plus to block Google Analytics, too. I do it because Google Analytics freezes scrolling on my old version of Firefox on my slow computer.

It is not "wrong" to put Google Analytics at the start of the page - in fact, Google _requires_ it for some GA features to work (like Event Tracking).

You can do those with a hybrid system. The JS loads a special url with those values are url parameters, and the log analyzer knows to look for that url.

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