When I said that sites don&#x27;t realize the value they generate, I didn&#x27;t mean that they don&#x27;t get something else out of the deal.  Google Analytics is a genuinely useful service, for example.<p>I suspect that a lot of sites aren&#x27;t thinking hard about the tradeoffs, though.  The benefits of using these services are immediate and obvious, whereas the costs are rather more subtle.<p>I heard a fascinating talk last year by John Gruber about ways of monetizing content outside the usual sell-tracking-rights-and-accept-ad-bids model.  (Check out what he does at <a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;daringfireball.net&#x2F;feeds&#x2F;sponsors&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;daringfireball.net&#x2F;feeds&#x2F;sponsors&#x2F;</a>.  The whole site seems to be entirely devoid of third-party tracking.)