Two possible tracking scripts

[xbm45]

Problem #1: googletagservices.com - I discovered this on this page.

This page is loading a script from h**p://www.googletagservices.com/tag/static/google_services.js

I don't know what to make of this horribly-obfuscated javascript, although the few intelligible strings in it refer to advertising. I've blocked the domain on my end, and do not notice any ill-effects on the page in general.


Also located in this page is a script making XML requests to an intra-domain tracker at h**p://www.bloomberg.com/apps/data?pid=trackstoryhits&sgid=[ID]

This appears to be of much lower risk, but it's still a request of no benefit to the user. Blocking these tracking requests generically causes no problems on the page.

[Hubird]

http://google-taglib.sourceforge.net/

Easily Include Google Searches in Your Web Applications . With the Google JSP Tag Library, developers and designers can easily incorporate Google queries, search results ...

[pigeon768]

Code: Select all

~ $ nslookup www.googletagservices.com
Server:         4.2.2.2
Address:        4.2.2.2#53

Non-authoritative answer:
www.googletagservices.com       canonical name = partnerad.l.doubleclick.net.
Name:   partnerad.l.doubleclick.net
Address: 173.194.70.155
Name:   partnerad.l.doubleclick.net
Address: 173.194.70.156
Name:   partnerad.l.doubleclick.net
Address: 173.194.70.157
Name:   partnerad.l.doubleclick.net
Address: 173.194.70.154

Soo... yeah, nothing more to be said, really.

[lewisje]

Maybe all content served from googletagservices.com is actually benevolent, and although served from the same IP address as the various doubleclick domains, is actually served from a separate instance of a Web server; try going to partnerad.l.doubleclick.net/tag/static/google_services.js and see what you get...web-sniffer.net (which I use since my own ad-blocking fortress actually blocks doubleclick) says it returns a typical 404 page, even though www.googletagservices.com/tag/static/google_services.js returns a minified Javascript file.

Many Web servers use the Host header, which specifies the hostname that the surfer used, to send Web surfers to different Web sites that may be hosted at the same IP address; this is how cheap shared hosting works, and it should be no surprise that Google uses this same basic technology internally.
(This is also why sometimes you need to add an entry to your HOSTS file to access a site that has DNS troubles, rather than just browsing to the bare IP address.)