<s>
A	O
web	B-Application
counter	I-Application
or	O
hit	B-Application
counter	I-Application
is	O
a	O
publicly	O
displayed	O
running	O
tally	O
of	O
the	O
number	O
of	O
visits	O
a	O
webpage	O
has	O
received	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
Web	B-Application
counters	I-Application
are	O
usually	O
displayed	O
as	O
an	O
inline	B-Algorithm
digital	I-Algorithm
image	I-Algorithm
or	O
in	O
plain	O
text	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
Web	B-Application
counters	I-Application
were	O
often	O
accompanied	O
by	O
the	O
date	O
it	O
was	O
set	O
up	O
or	O
last	O
reset	O
,	O
to	O
provide	O
more	O
context	O
to	O
readers	O
on	O
how	O
to	O
interpret	O
the	O
number	O
shown	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
Although	O
initially	O
a	O
way	O
to	O
publicly	O
showcase	O
a	O
site	O
's	O
popularity	O
to	O
its	O
visitors	O
,	O
some	O
early	O
web	B-Application
counters	I-Application
were	O
simply	O
web	B-Protocol
bugs	I-Protocol
used	O
by	O
webmasters	O
to	O
track	O
hits	O
and	O
included	O
no	O
visible	O
on-page	O
elements	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
Counters	O
were	O
popular	O
in	O
the	O
1990s	O
,	O
but	O
were	O
later	O
replaced	O
by	O
other	O
web	O
traffic	O
measures	O
such	O
as	O
self-hosted	O
scripts	O
like	O
Analog	B-Protocol
,	O
and	O
later	O
on	O
by	O
remote	O
systems	O
that	O
used	O
JavaScript	B-Language
,	O
like	O
Google	B-Application
Analytics	I-Application
.	O
</s>
<s>
Thus	O
,	O
seeing	O
a	O
web	B-Application
counter	I-Application
on	O
a	O
modern	O
web	O
page	O
is	O
one	O
example	O
of	O
retrocomputing	O
on	O
the	O
Internet	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
Owing	O
to	O
their	O
ubiquity	O
,	O
hit	B-Application
counters	I-Application
were	O
also	O
a	O
useful	O
tool	O
to	O
collect	O
data	O
on	O
the	O
global	O
usage	B-Application
share	I-Application
of	I-Application
web	I-Application
browsers	I-Application
for	O
a	O
time	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
In	O
one	O
SEO	O
spamming	O
technique	O
,	O
companies	O
paid	O
to	O
have	O
their	O
site	O
listed	O
in	O
the	O
HTML	O
code	O
of	O
a	O
free	O
hit	B-Application
counter	I-Application
.	O
</s>
<s>
In	O
2008	O
,	O
Google	B-Application
removed	O
a	O
number	O
of	O
high-ranking	O
mesothelioma	O
sites	O
that	O
had	O
been	O
using	O
counters	O
from	O
the	O
top	O
results	O
.	O
</s>
