Saturday, April 16, 2011

Google Analytics opt out firefox 4

For some reason, Google is not releasing an Analytics opt out plug in for firefox 4. Unfortunately I was not able to make the xpi file work on firefox, it is probably signed.

So until Google releases an updated version, here is my simple version of opt out on Windows. No coding experience required:
Go to \Windows\System32\drivers\etc
open the hosts file hosts in any text editor
Add this line to the end:
127.0.0.1 www.google-analytics.com

viola! You have blocked Google Analytics.
Use this method at your own risk though, some websites might have integrated with Analytics and if they are not coded properly the javascript on these sites will crash.

In any case, I hope this helps people out there.