[Search wiki] Urchin

[Rainer Blome]

Wikia pages are analyzed with the help of 
www.google-analytics.com/urchin.js .  My understandíng is that this is a 
web service that analyzes which pages are visited and how often.

Because of the nature of a traffic analysis service, the provider 
(Google) can see how often Wikia visitors are visiting which pages. 
Even more:  If the provider wants to, they can even compile a surf 
profile for the requesting IP addresses.
In case it's not blatantly obvious: this is a privacy issue.

Is it documented anywhere that this is done?

Is this necessary?

How are the results used?

Wikia is playing into the hands of its competitor, here (:-).
If it's necessary, why doesn't Wikia do this on its own?

Rainer