IE7 Bug “Internet Explorer Can’t Open Web site”
August 1st, 2008 by Syd
I read about this first at The Volokh Conspiracy, checked that blog with IE7 and sure enough, IE7 gave the message, “Internet Explorer Cannot Open the Internet Site Operation Aborted.”
The long and the short of it is that this is a “security fix” that was recently added to one of the Internet Explorer updates. It has to do with the way IE7 handles JavaScript, those useful little widgets that so many of us use in our blogs and web pages.
You don’t have to remove Sitemeter. The problem is in where the Sitemeter script is placed in your blog template. See the article here. I was having the same problem with IE7 on my blog and I moved the Sitemeter script from the sidebar to the main index template above the "get footer" line and the problem went away.
If you are using WordPress and SiteMeter or similar Javascript widgets, check your blog with IE7. If you get this error, move the Sitemeter script from the sidebar template to “index.php” and make sure it is above the
“<?php get_footer();?>” line. I’m sure other blog software is set up in similar fashion, but I work with WordPress, so it’s the one I know.
What concerns me about this fix is that it may not allow Sitemeter to track pages called individually from search engines. I will have to watch the log to see if it is still recording the hits with this arrangement.
Update: This workaround does not seem to be working properly. The Sitemeter log is recording some hits, but it’s certainly well below normal.
I hadn’t noticed this problem with IE7 and Sitemeter until now because I use Firefox for my browser and I heartily recommend it, but a lot of folks are using Internet Explorer, and this bug may be costing you traffic.
Some blogs I checked that are having this problem (besides mine and Volokh)
Common Folk Using Common Sense
…There are a bunch more, but I’m tired of checking blogs. Check your blog in IE7
I would have never known that my blog was having problems opening in IE7, because I use Firefox for a browsers. Thanks for letting me know and I will try to fix it.