Users leaving browser windows open for lengthy periods of time in itself does not cause your time on site statistics to increase. This is because the web is a “stateless” medium. There is no actual continued “connection” between the browser and the web server as there is in a client/server setup. Here’s how it works in a nutshell:

1. Your visitor opens a web browser and types in the URL for your web site.
2. The browser sends a request for your home page.
3. The server sends the home page HTML code.
4. The browser on the other end takes the code and renders the home page for the visitor.

That’s where the connection ends. All contact between the server and the visitor’s computer is severed unless the visitor clicks on a link, then the process begins all over again for the page the visitor requests.

As the analytics software processes the server’s web logs it looks for patterns in requests from individual IP Addresses or cookie values. If a user clicks on a link at least once within 20-30 minutes (depending on how the software is set) the analytics considers the visitor to have an active “session.” Once there are no clicks for that time, the “session” is considered abandoned, then the software calculates the time the visitor was on site.

As I understand things – and believe me I am a mere beginner at the math to all this – the time on site is a pretty good estimate, but an estimate nonetheless. I might be wrong on this point, so if you hear different please let me know.

So, in your scenario, leaving the browser open for hours will not result in longer time on site statistics unless there is some clicking going on.

guenevere

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