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Sorry for my curiosity, but...

StackOverflow is using an invisible image to increase view count. It's source is set to something like this:


What is [Code] for? Why do you need it?

I can't see the whole picture...


I can't see the whole picture...

I don't mean the invisible image, but the way view counting is working...

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... that's because the picture is invisible. –  kennytm Aug 28 '10 at 17:24
Where did you get "increase view count" from? –  Michael Mrozek Aug 28 '10 at 17:39
theeggeadventure.com/wikimedia/index.php/… I think 'ivc' from .../ivc/[Code] stands for 'increase view count' –  denis_n Aug 28 '10 at 17:41
Also the image is returning 204 status code. You can check this in Firebug. –  denis_n Aug 28 '10 at 18:05

2 Answers 2

It's probably just a nonce, to avoid for example you embedding that image in your website thereby artificially increasing the view count.

Probably this is done with an image rather than the actual page to exclude automatic scripts such as wget, which usually don't download images.

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