Weird searches in pMetrics

FYI: I also noticed such troubles...

I also noticed, but not pornographic, only random and weird searches with no relation with my blog.

I've seen the same thing. I started a thread about it yesterday in the pMetrics forum.

We both use Pmetrics, she has the free version and I have the paid. The "weird links" are both pornographic in nature and non-porno. I've also noticed that all of them are linked to searches (Live and Google in our cases). Other info: she runs a static type website maintained and updated with MS Frontpage and mine is a WordPress custom install.

Just for info's sake, these links are not reflected in our host's built-in "Awstats" statistics engine nor in Google Analytics for the same sites. This tells me that something might have gotten into the Pmetrics server or (less likely) that the Pmetrics tracking code is able to pick up these "links" where other tracking type codes cannot. I've checked both sites using Firefox's "User Agent Switcher" and viewing the source for the indicated pages where these searches supposedly landed on and the sites are clean (just a stupid check there). BTW, we're both using the tracking code itself, my site's inserted in the footer.php and her's placed in every page she wishes to track visitors on.

Oddly enough I can't really tell if these bogus links are listed in the "Searches" Page in Pmetrics since clicking on each "search" link only leads to a Pmetrics page with nothing but a blank area where the information on that particular search is supposed to be.

Hope this helps in the finding the fix.

Theory: How about a bot that purposely generates random searches as a type of referrer link to one of the many search engines that's made to purposely mess up statistics engines and then places those search links into the user's stats?

I just wanted to let you know that it happened to me too. The searches were completely unrelated to my blog.

Just wanted to let you know.

Thanks!

Me too. Not everything is "weird" ... maybe half. And of the 'weird' half is porno/pervy and half is just search terms entirely unrelated to the blog (which is weird cuz it's a wide ranging blog).

I remember see some weird searches in my logs also. wow, I wonder what it could be. a hack?

wikipedia: Referrer spam

Is there an option in pMetrics to publish referrers via RSS?

I have this problem too.

I have seen strange searches, but I have no idea where it's come from.

It seems like a broad cross-section of searches, not just porn. I think the relatively large number of porn searches is just a reflection on the Internet in general.

I'm seeing the same strange referrers. It has both porn and non-porn with the topics/keywords all over the place. I'm running Drupal and have the code on every page. Most seem to be searches using Google.

Good suggestion Markus, but I don't think this is Referer spam. I've done a comparison of my traffic reports on performancing and sitemeter. I've matched IP addresses, time of visit and page views for several visitors. The search terms as reported by sitemeter are relevant to my sites content and seem correct.

Thanks for the info everyone. If other stats programs like SiteMeter are showing the correct info for these visitors, this makes me think the problem is definitely something in the pMetrics database. A corrupt index could be linking referrers to the wrong id. I'll be running repairs on the appropriate tables this weekend and see if that clears things up.

I guess I thought they were mainly all pornographic (and hence some sort of spam or hack) because those are the ones that really stand out. I know this ia serious problem but I must admit I'm somewhat entertained at seeing people arrive at performancing.com via searches such as Nick and Vanessa uncensored pics :)

I'm getting the same weird referrers. :-\

I also do have weird searches, the ones that have nothing to do with my blog :\ (I've just discovered what QuesoKid wrote before and hope the problem will be solved as soon as possible :)

I didn't have time to do a thorough side-by-side comparison yesterday other than do a check for referrer links but I agree with QuesoKid. The visits are correct, the referrer is wrong. Just so I said so. :)

I thought it was just me. Weird searches started to appear a few days ago. Didn't happen before.

Yeah I was puzzling out how people were searching for the following things and getting to my site: (These are the SFW ones, I want scare your mines with some of the disturbing ones I got.)

suspenders
proton persona
I Know Who Killed Me
dimensional sidewalk
reggaeton workout songs
promise ring music
biblioteca ignoria
how to make bubble

The searches appear to be normal on my dashboard but when I check the uniques they change to weird searches.

I am having the same problem too. I see porno search keywords leading to my site.

Hopefully the problem will be resolved soon.

... about this trouble, Sean?

The weird searches appear in the "action" list, but the "search" list and the keywords listed on the dashbord are the good ones... Let us know when it is fixed!

Daria

I have to say it happened to me too.

Hi,

I'm experiencing the same problem of odd referral data displayed on the visitors list. But when I look in the "spy" view, the referral data is just fine. Also in the "searches" tab, the keywords listed are fine.

It seems as if someone has hacked the presentation interface of Pmetrics, while the information in the database is intact.

I hope the information above will help you isolate and fix the problem.

-

Yes, same here. I was gonna write you an email today. I have been seeing this for 10 days now. I though that it would stop. SO it is not only for 5 people, everyone seems to be having it. So there's something definitely wrong here.

Another confirmation here...the errors are only seen on the "Visitors" page and nowhere else including the new Dashboard.

So how about an update on the situation Sean? How're you coming along on getting this problem resolved? Even a "We're working on it, couple more days" will do.

referring links and search terms on visitor and action page are wrong on my site too.

www.we-relax.com

I'm sorry my weekend was much busier than expected, I didn't get to this yet. I will try to this weekend. I know it's important, it's not as easy as it might sound though.

I've temporarily disabled memcached to see if perhaps its memory is getting corrupted and it's returning the wrong ids. Although we are using ECC memory so that shouldn't theoretically happen, but it's an easy test to do at the moment.

Well, you were right Sean, no change seen at all in fact it seems to be getting a bit worse. I'm also seeing large sections of the "Incoming Links" under the "Links" tab showing nothing but blanks where the links should be. I know you seem to be a one man show there and that's definitely no fun but this needs some serious work done on it. Not to point out the obvious but both your paying (and non-paying) customers rely on this data.

Yeah I see that. Good news though, I found the problem. It does have to do with the database table itself.

There's a new version of pMetrics ready to go with tons of new features, but i was holding off on releasing it because I'm so busy at the moment. Part of this release copies all data from existing tables into new tables, because they are now formatted differently and much more optimized. Fixing the referrers table would take a while because it is so big, and it's basically part of this new release anyways, so I'm going to bite the bullet and start the transformation for the new pMetrics tonight, probably around 7 PM USA PST. We have a lot of data to chew through so I expect it to take around 24 hours. After that it will take another 24 hours or so to catch back up with real time data.

I just posted this about the new version debuting this weekend. It's basically the same thing as my comment above, but if you wish to comment on the new version please do so in that thread.