Web counter

A web counter or hit counter is a computer software program that indicates the number of visitors, or hits, a particular webpage has received. Once set up, these counters will be incremented by one every time the web page is accessed in a web browser.

The number is usually displayed as an inline digital image or in plain text. Images may be presented in a variety of fonts, or styles; the classic example is the wheels of an odometer. The counter should be accompanied by the date it was set up or last reset, otherwise it becomes impossible to estimate within what time the number of page loads counted occurred.

It should be noted that web counters are not necessarily trustworthy. A site s Webmaster could start the counter at an astromonically high number to give visitors the impression that the site is more popular than it actually is. Some poorly written counter applications count successive refreshes of the webpage as unique hits.

The company Webcounter.com was one of the first to offer counter services, beginning in the mid-1990s. At one time it was common to see a hit counter on every page, but this is no longer the case for several reasons:

They have been replaced (or augmented) by more complicated web analytics methodologies that give the webmaster a better overall picture of site traffic besides a simple, perpetually increasing number.

As style elements, they are no longer associated with the impression of professional web design—some people consider web counters to be a gimmicky feature and they are thus typically found on personal pages created by individuals.

The number of visitors to a site may be a trade secret

Too small a number might indicate the page s lack of popularity. Removing the counter thus levels the playing field.

Despite this, numerous companies continue to offer free and premium webcounter services.

=External links=

*[http://www.countertracker.com/ Counter Tracker (Advanced Web Counter)] *[http://www.countstats.net/ CountStats (Free Web Counter and Site Tracker)] *[http://www.mxcounters.com/ Free Web Counters] *[http://www.branica.com/ Free Counters] *[http://hitsinspector.com/ Free Hit Counters]