We all heard of the TRP tweakings. The web is also obviously not alien to the concept of reach exaggeration to invite the advertising greens. The webgurus know it very well. But relative novices who wonder how many of the unheard of and unworthy of websites boast of page hits running into millions. One, they never ever post a single article in one page, you have to click through multiple pages to read the whole stuff. A multiplication of three to five (sometimes more) in one step. Two, an embedded script makes the page reload at prefixed intervals translating into more hits. And these pages are not those with updated cricket scores, but archived ones, dug out by Google.

There are many more less techie ways too. Like asking all the employees to make the website their default home page on the browser. An old workplace of mine asked us ‘unofficially’ to click on a particular ad on the site about five/six times a day. Then there are services like fakezilla – providing ‘innovative unique traffic technologies.’ There might be so many more hidden within the tags that keep the whole page together.

Of late the Statcounter counter on this blog has been adding numbers a little slow. Do I resort to the tricks? Nah! No use. No ads here, so neither is the money. Let my employers (past and future) bask in the glory of inflated readership / circulation / TRPs / page hits / and whatever the future may bestow upon this industry. I, for now, have my conscience clear.

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