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Why am I getting "blank web browser" when my browser's never blank?
"Blank web browser" is being logged as a "site" I spend a lot of time on. Problem is, my browsers (windows or tabs) are never "blank". Any idea what this refers to and how to fix it?
I use Firefox 2.0.0.14 on a MacBook Pro running 10.5.2.
I use Firefox 2.0.0.14 on a MacBook Pro running 10.5.2.
I’m frustrated
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Inappropriate?Do you have any web sites being tracked at all or is it just that a portion of your web browsing is labeled "Blank web browser"?
RescueTime looks for some very specific things in the the URL field in order to determine that is is a "site". Essentially it checks for the existence of the characters: ftp://, http://, https:// and file://. If the URL field doesn't start with one of those, then RescueTime doesn't know how to handle the rest of the information and will categorize that time as "Blank web browser" or "Unknown URL".
Also, notice that when a new tab is created in Firefox, the URL field is blank by default, and that can add up over time, but it depends on how much time you are seeing in your dashboard.
Let me know if any of that might fit into your situation or if we need to dig deeper into the issue for you.
Thank you! -
Inappropriate?Thanks for the quick response. I definitely have sites being tracked and all that info seems pretty accurate, so it's just a portion that's a problem.
I have Firefox set up to open about 8 tabs on launch, and I usually open another window with about 8 more tabs. If I ever open a new tab, it's not blank for more than a second or two as i add a url -- but RescueTime is logging "blank web browser" with many minutes in a given day. (I'm already up around 15 minutes today).
I just cycled through all my open tabs and they're all http or https.
What's next? -
Inappropriate?The next thing to check is the log files that have been generated for you today to see if there is something in there that would give us a clue as to what is going on.
On OS X these will be located at Macintosh HD:[username]:Library:RescueTime:Logs:Uploaded
The URL information for Firefox is passed to us in the text field labeled "extended_info". If you see Firefox entries that have no or strange data for the corresponding "extended_info", sometimes looking at the previous entries give us a clue as to what might be causing it.
I can also look at some of the incoming log information on our side, just send me an email to team@rescuetime.com from the email account you are using for RescueTime. -
Inappropriate?Yep, now we're getting somewhere. Here's what I found poking around in today's logs:
app_name: Firefox
window_title: 'RescueTime - Main'
extended_info: 'about%3Ablank'
start_time: 2008-04-30 09:19:43
end_time: 2008-04-30 09:33:55
Judging from the start and end times this would seem to be the culprit. Ironically it's some kind of "about" RescueTime page? -
Inappropriate?I'm betting all of your window_title entries say 'RescueTime - Main', which is what happens if your system doesn't have "Access for Assistive Devices" enabled (which you can turn on from the Universal Access in System Preferences). That's a different issue though, and since we aren't using Window Titles yet, it shouldn't impact you at all.
The 'about%3Ablank' sounds like it might be the default entry for new Firefox tabs/windows. Can you confirm that when you open a new tab that the URL field says "about:blank"?
Thanks! -
Inappropriate?Hmm, no -- new tabs have a completely empy URL field (and the title of the tab is "(Untitled)"). The mystery continues.
I'll send you an email so you can check logs on your side (if you have time -- i appreciate all the help so far). -
Inappropriate?Apparently Firefox windows with blank URL fields respond back to RescueTime with "about:blank", which is interesting, I always thought it would respond back with just an empty field.
Here's a simple AppleScript that duplicates the RescueTime request to Firefox for the URL:
tell application "Firefox"
set fullURL to «class curl» of window 1
end tell
display alert "Firefox URL = " & fullURL
You can paste that into Script Editor and run it to get the URL of the active Firefox page/tab. If it is an empty URL it will return back "about:blank".
I checked the incoming log files and I see entries coming from your system that have the about:blank for Firefox, what I can't tell is why you have so much time associated with them. -
Inappropriate?Hi Joe,
Nice app!
I too get a significant portion of time spent on "Blank Web Browser" and though I may be slow before I've had my coffee, I don't usually space out for periods longer than 2 minutes.
My log files look similar to brifar's with time spent on about:blank. I've enabled Access for Assistive Devices, but it seems that might just be tangential (?)
Any more details on this since last month?
Alex -
Inappropriate?Alex, are you running Firefox 2 or 3?
We've had mixed reports of Firefox 3 RC1 users where RescueTime is not getting the URL in many instances. I haven't yet been able to duplicate the issue on any of our testing systems, but I'm making a change to the data collector that should make it easier to troubleshoot this issue.
I should have that change released in the next couple of days.
Thanks! -
Inappropriate?I'm running Firefox 2.0.0.14 so I'll look out for your next release and see what I see then.
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Inappropriate?Hi,
One things that I have discovered with FF, sometimes when you download an app, it pops open a blank webpage in addition to the download dialogue. Maybe this is what RT is logging?
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