I learned about this at my recent NAMS Conference – by the way, check out the awesome (and extremely affordable) training offered! In a session presented by Regina Smola, Regina discussed a performance issue that was noticed on a client’s site.
It seems that some of the pages were loading very slowly. In the status bar of the browser, the status read, ”Waiting for map.media6degrees.com”.
It seemed that there was a long delay with data that was being “shared” with the Sexybookmarks plugin. Notice the emphasis and quotes around the word, shared. I cannot make it any more obvious than that!.
So what was happening? In the setting of this plugin, there is a section, Functionality Settings:
You can see the default (and preferred) setting for Track Performance is Yes. This sends traffic data back to Shareaholic, the plugin’s creator! I searched around and found a very interesting discussion on the WordPress Forums. There are currently no reports available to you reporting on what this traffic is – all the data is being collected by the plugin’s creator! You do not see ANY of the results (but are supposedly some reports are, ‘coming soon’).
My advice (and what Regina shared with us) is to select the NO option for Track Performance. When (or if) reports are made available to you and depending on if they are helpful to you, you may want to share data with Sharaholic.
I suggest using Google Analytics as a way to get traffic info all about your site anyway!
Great points, Paul. I just changed my settings. Thanks.
I don’t mean to point out this particular plugin – the real lesson here is to check all the settings and know what they are doing. Perform your due diligence any time you install a new plugin or even update an old one! I am/was guilty of installing without fully checking out some plugins!
Thanks for the heads up since I use that plugin. I’ve been meaning to listen to the audio of Regina’s session as soon as I find the time!
There is always a lot to do when you get back from a conference! Review your notes first, organize what you need to do based on your notes and memory, and then get cracking! Make sure you have some actual ‘value’ tasks to complete (as opposed to just busy work that will not get you anywhere).
Great meeting you in Atlanta, Sharyn!
Thank you for an excellent post, Paul. I am guilty of installing plugins without checking it over and particularly when someone I trust uses the same plugin. I’m off to adjust the settings!
I was shocked to hear about it – it is very disturbing, actually! Believe it or not, the ability to click the option NOT to share did not even exist originally! Fortunately, the creators of the plugin realized what they were doing was not the best thing and changed the plugin. I think it was just a case of not realizing that they were doing something wrong.
Thanks Paul, I’ve been having this annoying problem with slow access to map.media6degrees.com too and hadn’t pinpointed the cause. Cheers, Graham
This adds to the list of offenses from Shareaholic. I used the Firefox addon they had a long time ago and un-installed when they turned on the “stats” crap that simply spies on all of your pageviews and gives data back to them and a third party you have never heard of. Read this comment from someone elses blog:
Found this through the compete site: “People are recruited to join Compete’s community through compete.com and consumerinput.com. Anonymous consumer data is also licensed from national ISPs and ASPs.” This is funny because I didn’t know Shareaholic “recruited” me, but more importantly look at this… “ASP” right there stands for “Application Service Provider”. So now it’s very obvious why Shareaholic has turned into spyware, because the spying is “licensed” from their application. Shareaholic is probably getting paid a killing for letting consumerinput spy on so many users. This is more than aggravating, and they need to be shut down for such sneaky behavior. Users should be notified. What is the process? How do we report these guys?
Lo and behold the same shady company takes over the Sexybookmarks plugin so today my readers are being tracked by another third party they havent heard of! Without my knowledge!! LOL
Needless to say the plugin has been removed and I recommend everyone do the same for performance and security. Who knows what else they’ll do to your site without your knowledge! Do not trust!