Chicagoist: New Norwegian Trend? The CTA Website

chicagodom

Thu, 15 Jan 2009 22:15:31 -0600

I'm still trying to figure out where "Eruope" might be.

Pakennedy

Tue, 13 Jan 2009 20:56:31 -0600

Many webcrawlers (the bots that actively scour the internet to do updates on super-servers for google, yahoo, etc.) run through proxy servers or from servers hosted elsewhere. While it is possible that a site like google is keeping servers in Norway or such a place, it is more likely that, like Alfonso said above, that the webcrawlers are running through proxies listed as being from Norway. I have no idea how many root pages that a site like CTA's has, but it is possible that it has several hundred and there might be several "Norwegian" webcrawlers cataloging their new site's pages, thus tons of hits.

AlfonsoBedoyaJr

Tue, 13 Jan 2009 12:26:40 -0600

I was the one who posted that comment - I think it was in Hilkevich's blog but they moved it to the articles. If you go to the Opera Mini page at Wikipedia it explains how the proxy servers work. Opera recently opened a server farm in the US so CTA shouldn't see so many hits from Norway. You just hope they don't decide that this means they should open up a travel office in Norway because of all the interest. If someone at the CTA could read a referrer log they wouldn't have put this out. (typed in Opera Mini on a phone)

Sears Tower

Tue, 13 Jan 2009 11:13:48 -0600

Sounds to me like Oslo State and Manila A&M students had a class assignment on how to make mistakes while running a public transit system.

brettroyal

Tue, 13 Jan 2009 10:54:09 -0600

I don't read Norwegian, but the pictures of computers and the scatterings of "Opera Mini" in this article seem to give credence to that explanation.

three

Tue, 13 Jan 2009 10:49:28 -0600

oh yea i definitely saw that comment.

matty

Tue, 13 Jan 2009 10:32:22 -0600

How did that comment dissapear? The opera mini proxy servers (the ones on the bb) are in norway. The whole article is total bullshit.

BlueFairlane

Tue, 13 Jan 2009 10:31:20 -0600

So, it all comes together now. Haven't you people seen the weather lately? Norway must have some kind of weather machine to spread Norwegian climate patterns around the world, and now they're doing internet research of their future conquests. Say hello to your new Norwegian overlords.

chgoeditor

Tue, 13 Jan 2009 10:04:39 -0600

Interestingly, there was a comment on the Trib's article that appears to have disappeared, but it speculated that the hits are coming from people using Opera Mini web browsers, which have or had proxy servers located in Norway.