Urchin Analytics’ Pre-Google Logo
If you’ve ever looked at a web URL on social media, and in a lot of other places, you’ve seen links like these:
https://example.com/page?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=launch
What’s a “utm”?
If you don’t know, try to think of the strangest possible expansion of that acronym. 3…2…1…
It stands for “Urchin Tracking Module”. This sounds like some Orwellian big tech plot to tag the world’s poor, but in fact refers to Urchin Analytics. Urchin was a server log-based analytics system from the late 1990s that Google acquired in 2005. Urchin worked by adding query parameters to URLs, and then analyzing the web server logs. The product has since been renamed Google Analytics, but the Urchinisms live on.
Urchin was fine back when traffic was mostly full page reloads on every click, but in the era of single-page applications and JavaScript-heavy designs, it’s no long really sufficient. Eventually Google Analytics grew to incorporate more advanced tracking mechanisms, such as JavaScript page tags and cookies.
Fun fact: Until 2012, you could run your own self-hosted Urchin instances. After that, Google discontinued the software.
These URL params come from a less invasive time. They can’t track you personally, and they don’t add cookies by themselves. They really are only good for the site to answer questions like “how many hits did we get from our email campaign”.
The Param List
Here’s what each of the utm parameters mean:
utm_source – Where the traffic came from. For example “twitter” or “lowendbox”
utm_medium – How it came. For example “email”, “social”, etc.
- utm_campaign – Why it it came. Such as “black_friday”, “summer_sale”, etdc.
Less common:
utm_term – Keyword (mostly for paid search)
utm_content – Distinguish similar links (A/B tests, different buttons)
Fun and Games With URLs
You can always remove these tags. For example, if you ask ChatGPT for a link, it’ll add
https://example.com?utm_source=chatgpt.com
If you’re copying that link to something, you may not want to advertise the fact that it’s from AI.
But, of course, you can also modify them. For example, instead of
https://example.com/page?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=launch
why not
https://example.com/page?utm_source=whitehouse.gov&utm_medium=military&utm_campaign=mkultra
or
https://example.com/?utm_source=ouija_board&utm_medium=divine_intervention&utm_campaign=this_will_confuse_marketing
or
https://example.com/?utm_source=my_cat&utm_medium=misclick&utm_campaign=late_night_ideas
or if you want to show some love
https://example.com/page?utm_source=lowendbox.com
Raindog308 is a longtime LowEndTalk community administrator, technical writer, and self-described techno polymath. With deep roots in the *nix world, he has a passion for systems both modern and vintage, ranging from Unix, Perl, Python, and Golang to shell scripting and mainframe-era operating systems like MVS. He’s equally comfortable with relational database systems, having spent years working with Oracle, PostgreSQL, and MySQL.
As an avid user of LowEndBox providers, Raindog runs an empire of LEBs, from tiny boxes for VPNs, to mid-sized instances for application hosting, and heavyweight servers for data storage and complex databases. He brings both technical rigor and real-world experience to every piece he writes.
Beyond the command line, Raindog is a lover of German Shepherds, high-quality knives, target shooting, theology, tabletop RPGs, and hiking in deep, quiet forests.
His goal with every article is to help users, from beginners to seasoned sysadmins, get more value, performance, and enjoyment out of their infrastructure.
You can find him daily in the forums at LowEndTalk under the handle @raindog308.
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