When Ghostery is active on turbotax.intuit.com, I repeatedly get the following error in the javascript console...
ReferenceError: Can't find variable: getURLParam
This happens in Safari, Chrome and FireFox (I have Ghostery on all three). Disabling Ghostery makes the error go away.
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Unblocking Omniture makes the error go away without disabling Ghostery.
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Hi tim, thanks for using Ghostery,
Eric is correct, Omniture is the tracker causing this issue, so you would either need to unblock it or whitelist the site. -
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Hmm do you know how many websites I found "Broken" because of this bug? Like high end consumer sites such as TurboTax?
Honestly this really makes me question whether I want to use Ghostery now. Yes, I like how it blocks stuff, but I can't be expected to keep a JavaScript console open all the time to check for errors, then disable Ghostery when I see one to see if maybe that's what's up.
I would never have guessed that me clicking a submit button on a form would fail because Ghostery had blocked something. And now I'm wondering what other website functionality is not working because of it. Not ad content functionality, but really basic "click the login button on the TurboTax website" functionality for example.
I would SERIOUSLY suggest a feature of Ghostery be the ability to detect console (javascript) errors caused by Ghostery blocking something, and to offer the user a suggestion something's up.
I wouldn't expect your average user to have the ability to use dev tools like FireBug to track down that something's up and figure out it's related to Ghostery.-
You're asking for the impossible. When a piece of code executes, you can see what side-effects result. When it's blocked, there's nothing to observe. Web pages will throw errors whether or not Ghostery is present at all, so even watching the Console isn't enlightening. You're going to get a lot of false positives.
That said, there's more we could be doing. It's a lot of work, and extremely time-consuming — want to help? Yes? Good. Keep reading.
All "bugs" are not created equal.
» Some are self-sufficient. They consist of a simple script call, or, perhaps, an iframe or one-pixel transparent image, that nothing else notices or cares about. These are "safe" to block.
» Some involve setup:
<script><br />
<em>// client and campaign IDs go here</em><br />
</script><br />
<script src="<em>whatever</em>"></script>
These, too, are "safe" to block.
» Some are declarative:
<!-- import <em>tracking_function</em> --><br />
<script src="<em>whatever</em>"></script><br />
<script><br />
<em>tracking_function</em>("client", "campaign");<br />
</script>
This will log an error (but it usually has no ill effects!).
Competent scripting doesn't have issues:
<!-- import <em>tracking_function</em> --><br />
<script src="<em>whatever</em>"></script><br />
<script><br />
<strong>try {</strong><br />
<em>tracking_function</em>("client", "campaign");</br>
<strong>}<br />
catch(e) {</strong><br />
// oh well<br />
<strong>}</strong><br />
</script>
You start to see problems when certain "Web 2.0" techniques are employed. (Unfortunately, that's becoming more commonplace.)
If all web authors followed well-documented best practices, there would be no complaints. Guess what? There's a lot of sh*tty JavaScript out there. It's written by lowest-bidder subcontractors ["we don't have to pay for their health care!"], and rushed into production without adequate testing ["QA cuts into our profits!"].
So, what's our beleaguered ghost supposed to do? If you say, "only block what's known to be safe," people will bitch that that doesn't go far enough, and pursue more aggressive alternatives. If you say, "implement surrogates for everything that might possibly cause something else to break," people will complain about poor performance.
The "squeaky wheel" approach focuses attention and resources where they're most needed. Keep reporting problems as you find them, and we'll do what we can to make your experience better.
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