Over the weekend, thousands of websites inexplicably crashed when browsed via Internet Explorer 7. The common thing about them is that they all use Sitemeter and a bug in the site tracking service caused all the havoc.
Sitemeter has promptly fixed the issue:
Dear SiteMeter Users,
We corrected a compatibility issue with our SiteMeter tracking code and IE7 and IE6 browsers that started last night.
The problem was related to some work we were doing on the backend system for our upcoming website launch.
We’ve identified and resolved two separate but related issues –
1 – IE Users viewing pages – The error occured (sic) when the SiteMeter tag was not a direct child of the body tag (e.g. if the tag was within a table or div). Recent changes we made created a failure for visitors viewing sites using Internet Explorer 7 and Internet Explorer 6.
2 – Accessing SiteMeter and Stats – Individuals trying to access or view their SiteMeter stats by clicking on their SiteMeter logo/icons were unable to gain access. This again appears to have affected only individuals using IE7 and IE6.
At this time both problems have been fixed and our services are fully operational.
For those who removed the SiteMeter code from your pages please be assured that the problem has been resolved and we sincerely apologize for the inconvenience.
During the outbreak, site tracking was partially disabled.
