The Steam Client and Google Analytics

A few of you are using NoScript to block Google Analytics and other crap in your browser, but I discovered that the Steam-Client is using Google Analytics as well (you can see so by right-clicking inside Steam and select "View Source...", that's how I became aware of it by coincidence).

The good news is that you can block it by editing the hosts file.

If you are on Win7, you first have to give your user full control in the properties > security tab to edit the file.

Adding these lines:

127.0.0.1 www.google-analytics.com
127.0.0.1 google-analytics.com
127.0.0.1 www.ssl.google-analytics.com
127.0.0.1 ssl.google-analytics.com

should do the trick.

There are also a few hosts files on the web that include a variety of ad- spam- tracking- and other pages and are frequently updated:

hosts 1

hosts 2 with additional info

You are welcome!

Update: It is not embedded in the Client, but used on the pages Steam browses to. (Thank you Xure for pointing this out!)