coopster - 11:07 am on Apr 8, 2009 (gmt 0)

Perhaps someone should write a Firefox plugin for people who want to avoid sites that use GA

Avoiding a site that uses GA is going to limit you from using a very very large number of the internet pages in existence today. However, as tangor mentioned, the NoScript add-on handles blocking tracking scripts and analytics just fine. Also, change your preferences to "ask me every time" for cookies and you can block them too. It's very easy to do.

when I noticed for the very first time today

Actually, it was the day before. I noticed right away because of the way my browser is configured and I visit here once or twice throughout the day if I am able.

Google is crawling this site. Google is crawling my site. Google crawls your site, hopefully. Just because the owner of a web site decides to use another form of analytics for marketing research, testing, whatever the reason -- it doesn't mean Google has violated your privacy nor does it mean the web site owner is violating your privacy.