Hidden Code

Today’s post is a bit off-topic, so I apologize up front. I’m posing a question for those of you who use Blogger (blogspot) or who know html code.

I noticed recently that blogspot was inserting code into my posts. When I checked the html, I found a piece of code at the end of the post. I have no clue exactly what it does and I can’t post the code here because it’s invisible. At first when I found it, I deleted it, slightly ticked that blogspot would insert it.

Then I wondered if perhaps it was something important, so I left it in.

Then I noticed that some words in the post were subtly underlined. If you clicked them, you’d be taken to some other site totally unrelated to my post. For example, in yesterday’s post about Rick Riordan, if I left in the code (which I didn’t), the word “contract” might have been underlined and when clicked you’d be taken to some site about contracts (I’m only guessing since I didn’t leave in the code).

Has anyone else noticed this? If you can read code and you use blogger, can you tell me what this piece of code is about? It seems to me that blogger/blogspot may be using all its bloggers to make money for them by using the posts as advertising methods. If you happen to use a keyword and a reader clicks it and gets taken to that advertiser’s site, then the advertiser pays blogger - again, that’s a guess on my part. (The piece of code contains words like "gwProxy" and "hidden" and "input onclick.")

I would like to know what the code is. If it’s an advertising revenue for blogger, I’ll keep deleting it. If it’s something else, say, a way for search engines to find the post, then I’ll probably go back to leaving it in, although I don’t like the idea that readers may think I put in the underlining and link, only to find themselves whisked away to some site with nothing to do with my post.