Site reports show many categories.

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• Reporter

Issue/Introduction

I created a report that begins with Categories, but it's showing sites with many categories.

Google.com is showing many categories.

Using the "Web browsing per site" shows sites with more than 4 categories per site, sometimes more than 20.  

Site reports that include users, show many categories.

 

Resolution

Any report based on site will show many categories, especially if it's a generic site, or hosting site.  This is because modern sites now can contain many sub-domains with their own categories.

NOTE: Most  search related sites such as google.com, yahoo.com, bing.com , or baidu.com will show this symptom.

In one case, one customer created a report as per the instructions below.

• Login as admin, and load the database in question.
• Click on the "Reports" tab, and use the button "New Report".
• Give the report a name, such as "Site report".
• Choose "Summarize By" and select "Site".
• Choose "Add Level" and select "Category.
• Click "Next" on the bottom right untill you see the last screen to save your report.
• Click "Run Report".
• NOTE: After you run the report, right click on the horizontal bar, at the top of the report , and remove "Browse time and "Page Views",

The above report showed Google.com as containing many categories, but drilling down to individual URLS we discovered that each URL off of google.com  was properly rated with up to 4 categories.

If you are using Bluecoat Webfilter, URLs will show a maximum of four categories, but sites can show more.  For more information on how Bluecoat Web Filter/Webpulse works at categorizing sites please see 000010005 .