Can web trackers that run ActiveX hurt Google ranking?

[rivergirl]

Can web trackers that run ActiveX hurt Google ranking?

[tedster]

What are you thinking of, here? What kind of problem would you see ActiveX creating for Google?

[rivergirl]

(i'm novice remember :) But when my IE window opens my own website it warns me that the page wants to run an ActiveX file. Just wondering if these kinds of warnings red flag the google bot for any reason.

[tedster]

Well, googlebot uses its own user agent, so it will not see IE's annoying little nag message. That's specific to the Explorer browser only. So as long as the ActiveX programming is not doing something shady (and that's a separate issue) you will not have a problem with ranking on Google just because a page triggers the ActiveX warning in Internet Exporer.

Also note - according to a new story on the IE Blog [blogs.msdn.com], an approaching update for IE7 will remove that message for everyone. Apparently this is the result of MS and Eolas settling a long-standing court case [computerworld.com].

[Robert Charlton]

But when my IE window opens my own website it warns me that the page wants to run an ActiveX file.

This very often happens with Flash files on the page. I generally alert clients when I see this happening to their pages, because it's likely to hurt click-throughs.

When the problem is Flash, this can be avoided by using the Adobe Flash Player Detection Kit:

[adobe.com...]

Not sure what you'd do in the case of a web tracker using ActiveX.

Also, Norton Internet Security, with medium default settings, is still likely to give the ActiveX warning, so you might want to look into what the cause is, and get rid of the ActiveX if you can.