Wha is this image for?

[Rosko]

What is this image used for in a web?

<img src="http://www.yyyyyyyyyyyyyyy.com/image.gif?track=7bb3h02axu2Y&aid=00306"
width=1 height=1 border=0>

I guess it must be a way of tracking, but anyone knows exactly what is it doing?
Cheers

[caspita]

The only way to know would be checking at the source code for

http // www yyyyyyyyyyyyyyy com/image gif

which I think is being redireted to some script .. like php or so.

[teaperson]

It's probably a "web beacon". When that gif loads (and it's probably just a blank pixel), the hit in the log will include those tracking numbers (track=7bb3h02axu2Y&aid=00306). Then the site's traffic software can parse out all those hits to image.gif and count up all the different codes. It's an efficient way to gather the data in the log files.

[Reid]

it is a one by one pixel image to track Impressions or pageviews. Every time a browser looks at your page it calls that image and records a pageview "impression"
When someone clicks on the link it is called a 'click-thru'.
When you look at the affiliates logs they will show # of impressions #of click-thru's etc.