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I was just checking what items were downloaded by the SO pages, and I saw pixel.quantserve.com popping up. My first instinct was to block it using Adblock Plus, but I'd like to know what it's for.

Any reason not to block "http://*.quantserve.com/" ??

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  • actually, this never finished downloading for me and the page just remains with a permanent download status bar.
    – Dimitar Christoff
    Dec 6, 2010 at 12:37
  • That freaking thing is annoying because it apparently never completes loading.
    – sebnukem
    Oct 23, 2014 at 19:38

2 Answers 2

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Quantserve is like Google Analytics, but totally public.

(this is important to attract advertisers, as they see your public validated traffic rank and have some idea of the type and number of visitors they might be advertising to)

http://www.quantcast.com/stackoverflow.com

I wish Google Analytics offered a world-public view into your web stats and we wouldn't need Quantserve..

EDIT: sometime in the last ~5 years, this has been moved to private data only.

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  • 2
    Is there a link to seeing the public SO traffic rank? Just curious...
    – Roddy
    Jul 16, 2009 at 11:44
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    Doesn't GA have an API for this?
    – Shog9
    Jul 16, 2009 at 17:35
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    @Jeff Atwood quantserve is currently crippling all StackExchange sites for me - every page takes 20+ seconds to load as it hangs on edge.quantserve.com :(
    – MattDavey
    Nov 9, 2011 at 10:23
  • This link doesn't seem to work currently
    – Peter W
    Feb 2, 2021 at 0:47
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    They're not private per se; you just need to have a registered account in order to view them: meta.stackexchange.com/a/313679/377214
    – Sonic the Anonymous Hedgehog
    Feb 13, 2021 at 1:16
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Noscript blocks it as a matter of course, so I guess you are losing quite a bit of data. Certainly more than a site with 'average' users!

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  • This is true. I have Noscript set to block all quantserve.com traffic.
    – TJ L
    Jul 16, 2009 at 14:47

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