Re: [Analytics] Does prefetch count as a pageview?

Hi Nuria, As I understand it, in Safari and Chrome with the default settings, there is a native browser feature that, when searching through the address bar (Google powered) by default silently starts loading the url of the top result shown below the address bar. Maybe there's a way we opted out, but I think it applies to Wikipedia as well. I'm replying privately because I didn't understand the last part of your email, and maybe we are saying the same thing :) -- Timo On Wed, 19 Dec 2018 at 14:14, Nuria Ruiz <nuria(a)wikimedia.org> wrote: > > I think that's for the Page Previews feature (i.e., when a user > hovers over a link on desktop Wikipedia) or > > its corresponding feature in the the Wikipedia for Android > (triggered by default on link tap) > The code that Fran pointed to only discounts "previews" by Android app > as we stablished that convention a while back. Page previews (hovers over > wikipedia links that display a short popup) are not counted as pageviews at > all at this time. > > >By "prefetching", I meant X's Wikipedia page shows up in the search > results and the browser prefetches/preloads the search results but I do not > click on X's Wikipedia page. If so, the >pageview data seem to over-count > the number of visits to X's Wikipedia page. > This functionality needs to be implemented by the client (it is not > automagically implemented by the browser) and it is not implemented on > Wikipedia. Searches trigger requests to the API, that return pageview urls, > not pageview prefetches. You can follow these workflows on the dev tools of > the browser you might be using. chrome://net-export/ is a new addition to > the toolset that gives you a readable dump. > > >Are you saying that browser-based prefetch activity (e.g., with > resource hinting like https://www.w3.org/TR/resource-hints/ ) is also > tagged the same way? > No. Browser prefetches cannot be tagged, they are initiated by the > browser. Wikipedia's pages do not do any prefetches and or pre-renderings > of content using those directives as far as I can see. dns-prefetches are > done for two domains: login and meta, neither of which counts as a pageview > cause a dns prefetch does not receive an http response. Just instantiates a > connection and resolves TLS if any. Prefetches might be indicated by a > standard set of headers like "Link:" in the future (this would be initiated > by the browser) but that seems on the works. > > Thanks, > > Nuria > > > On Wed, Dec 19, 2018 at 9:43 AM Adam Baso <abaso(a)wikimedia.org> wrote: > >> Fran, the preview to which you refer, I think that's for the Page >> Previews feature (i.e., when a user hovers over a link on desktop >> Wikipedia) or its corresponding feature in the the Wikipedia for Android >> (triggered by default on link tap) and Wikipedia for iOS (force press) >> apps, is that right? Are you saying that browser-based prefetch activity >> (e.g., with resource hinting like >> https://www.w3.org/TR/resource-hints/ ) is also tagged the same way? >> >> Chenqi Zhu, I think what you're suggesting is the possibility that >> browsers might be issuing HTTP prefetches for Wikimedia-hosted pages and >> that could inflate pageviews. I'm not sure, but have you happened to >> observe user agents making prefetches when resource hinting ( >> https://www.w3.org/TR/resource-hints/ ) is absent? I'm not sure how >> often, if at all, discovery platforms like search engines are actually >> placing resource hints into markup (which is mostly deterministic as far as >> browser behavior) for Wikimedia content...nor to what degree there might be >> heuristics being used for prefetching independently of any resource hints. >> Do you have any data or field observations to help clarify? >> >> Browser settings allude to this sort of behavior (e.g., in Chrome, >> there's "Use a prediction service to load pages more quickly", which is >> described at https://support.google.com/chrome/answer/114836 ), >> although I think without digging into browser source code it's a bit hard >> to know for certain what's going on "under the hood". We do use preconnect >> and prefetch semantics and the like in different contexts (cf. >> https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/search/query/G2tr8i0YZii9 , >> https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/search/query/.dtx_hqaj3wj , >> ...there may be more). >> >> -Adam >> >> >> >> On Wed, Dec 19, 2018 at 11:00 AM Francisco Dans <fdans(a)wikimedia.org> >> wrote: >> >>> Hi Chenqi, >>> >>> You can find out more about what constitutes a pageview in its >>> Metawiki article: >>> >>> https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Research:Page_view#Definition >>> >>> As you can see, one of the conditions is whether the request being >>> examined is a preview or not, in which case it is not counted as a page >>> view. Hope this helps! >>> >>> Fran >>> >>> On Wed, Dec 19, 2018 at 5:30 PM Chenqi Zhu <czhu(a)stern.nyu.edu> >>> wrote: >>> >>>> Hi everyone, >>>> >>>> I am trying to better understand the pageview data. I have a quick >>>> question. I apologize if the question has been asked or it is so naive. >>>> >>>> If the web browser prefetches a Wikipedia page, does it count as >>>> one pageview in the pageview data? By "prefetching", I meant X's Wikipedia >>>> page shows up in the search results and the browser prefetches/preloads the >>>> search results but I do not click on X's Wikipedia page. If so, the >>>> pageview data seem to over-count the number of visits to X's Wikipedia page. >>>> >>>> Thanks in advance for any insight. >>>> >>>> >>>> Chenqi Zhu >>>> New York University >>>> 44 W 4th St., Suite 10-185(B), >>>> New York, NY 10012, U.S.A. >>>> _______________________________________________ >>>> Analytics mailing list >>>> Analytics(a)lists.wikimedia.org >>>> https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/analytics >>>> >>> >>> >>> -- >>> *Francisco Dans* >>> Software Engineer, Analytics Team >>> Wikimedia Foundation >>> _______________________________________________ >>> Analytics mailing list >>> Analytics(a)lists.wikimedia.org >>> https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/analytics >>> >> _______________________________________________ >> Analytics mailing list >> Analytics(a)lists.wikimedia.org >> https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/analytics >> > _______________________________________________ > Analytics mailing list > Analytics(a)lists.wikimedia.org > https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/analytics > _______________________________________________