falconseye, I would assume that Clik Trax and HitBox are web redirect pages that track referals into a web site so that the referer gets credit for sending people that way as advertising compensation?
The ones I have seen work having the HREF point to their server which makes note of where it came from and where it is going, generally via information on the URL and then it redirects to the intended page.
The only time someone would be visiting a page tracked through those apps is when they are visiting from a contracted site so that the URL contains the referer information or if the URL with that information was stored in the users browser as a favorite or as a desktop shortcut.
In these cases there is ALWAYS a referer but the referer info might actually be passed as a parameter in the URL (depending on how they have their app setup to track). Since they are only a pass through site all hits that come through them will of course have info on where the request came FROM.
When going to a site directly and not through some link tracking system then you do not have to necessarily be receiving referer information because there might not be a referer, it might have been a directly typed URL to that site without bouncing through anything else. So of course your percentage of referer information is going to be much lower.
Think of it like this, if you setup a web site that is ONLY a redirect to another web site and everyone had to hit that site first in order to get to your site, then almost all of the hits to the second site are going to have a referer and that referer is going to be the first sites address. The exceptions will be with browsers that block referer information.
I could easily be wrong, I do not know the two tracking systems you mention or how they operate but I bet the premise is essentially correct. Any tracking system that determines the amount of monetary compensation an advertiser gets paid is going to pass data in a manner that is not readily blocked by browser settings that is why you see things like clikbot briefly in the URL when clicking links on advertisements from some web pages. The info on that click such as what web server it came from, what particular version of advertisement screen was involved or any other pertinent data is passed on the URL, the client is then directed to the web site related to the ad they clicked on. If you were not on a web page with an ad that you clicked on to get to a specific site then that data is of course not captured and transfered.
I think the discrepancy between those other apps having higher percentages of info than your web site is in the nature of what those apps are doing. They exist to provide links to a site and track who/what/when. If you site can be hit directly then there is nothing to ensure referer information is presented.
If you site could only be accessed through a link and that link had built in information on where it came from then you would be getting the info you needed, otherwise there just is no guarantee.
Paranoid? ME?? WHO WANTS TO KNOW????
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