This document summarizes a research project that analyzes the trackers present on websites over time using the Internet Archive. The researchers extracted URLs from the Wayback Machine for each day of a selected year. They input these URLs into a tracker detection tool to identify which third-party trackers were present on each site for that year. The results were analyzed and visualized to show the total number of unique trackers per year and a Gephi network graph of trackers on the New York Times front page from 2001-2011. The researchers propose further analyzing how tracking technologies have changed over time and mapping other types of media ecologies using the Internet Archive.

1. Traces of the Trackers
Tracking the Trackers: A historical analysis using the Internet Archive
Digital Methods Summer School 2012
Anne Helmond, Hugo Huurdeman, Thaer Samar, Nili Steinfeld, Lonneke van der Velden

3. natively digital archived objects
“one archives the website over the references
contained therein (hyperlinks), the systems that
delivered them (engines), the ecology in which
they may or may not thrive (the sphere) and
the pages or accounts contained therein that
keep the user actively grooming his or her
online profile and status (the platform).”
Rogers, Richard. Digital Methods. MIT Press (forthcoming)

4. tracing ecologies
This research project looks at a specific
archived object: tracker fingerprints.
In this research we would like to look at the
ecologies websites may be embedded in
beyond traditional hyperlinks, engines, spheres
and platforms. What are other natively digital
archived objects that we can study, and can we
map website ecologies around websites
through ‘invisible’ back-end linking?

7. Methodology
1. WayBack Machine, select 1 year > Internet
Archive URL into LinkRipper
2. Clean URL list, one URL per day
3. IA URLs per year into Tracker Tracker tool
4. Analyze and visualize results

8. total number of unique
trackers per year

10. Gephi movie over time: Trackers on the New York Times front page 2001-2011

11. Further research
• “Back-fingerprint” old trackers > add new
old tracker fingerprints to track
• Repeat for a set of websites
• Changing characteristics of tracking
technologies
• Look into media-concentration: who owns
which trackers?
• Which other types of media ecologies can
we map using the Internet Archive?