Microsoft as a third party, on 75 measured sites
This entry counts contacts to Microsoft-operated hostnames that are not one of the company's separately listed products — Microsoft Ads and Microsoft Clarity have their own entries in this index, and appear in other pages' co-presence lists under those names. What is left is the general case: a site loading something from Microsoft, whether that is a script, an embed, or a service running behind a marketing page. It has no vendor catalogue row of its own here, so it is counted as a company contacted rather than as a tracker. It was recorded on 75 of the 5,294 sites measured, and those 75 are crowded pages.
Four trackers on the median page
The median site in this group contacted 12 companies over 57 requests, and 4 of those companies were classified as tracking. That tracker figure ranks 12th of the 88 companies profiled in this index — well into the top fifth. By median companies it is 29th and by median requests 22nd.
A median of 4 catalogued trackers is high because it is a floor: only hosts the catalogue names and categorises can be counted, so a page with unfamiliar hostnames scores lower than a page with famous ones. These pages score high because the companies on them are the well-known kind.
A stack built to measure business-to-business marketing
The companies most often present alongside: Google on 71 of the 75 sites (94.7%), Meta on 23 (30.7%), LinkedIn on 20 (26.7%), Meta Pixel on 18 (24%), Amazon CloudFront on 16 (21.3%), jsDelivr on 14 (18.7%), Cloudflare Analytics on 13 (17.3%), OneTrust on 11 (14.7%), X on 10 (13.3%) and Reddit Pixel on 9 (12%).
Five of those ten are social advertising platforms: Meta, Meta Pixel, LinkedIn, X and Reddit Pixel. That is a marketing team measuring the same funnel across every network it buys on, and it explains the tracker median directly — each of those platforms is catalogued, named, and counted.
But early contact is lower than most
66 of the 75 sites, 88%, had a company contacted inside the early consent window. That share ranks 75th of the 88 companies profiled here, near the bottom of the table.
The median site had 7 companies inside the window and 2 arriving after it, and the median time to first contact was 624 ms with a fastest of 115 ms. The sample shows both patterns: launchdarkly.com contacted 9 companies with all 9 inside the window at 249 ms, while kaspersky.com contacted 22 companies with only 3 inside it, first contact at 1,460 ms.
Security, infrastructure and developer tools
The sample skews technical: security vendors (kaspersky.com, bitdefender.net), operating systems and networking (ubuntu.com, tailscale.com, no-ip.com, porkbun.com), developer platforms (launchdarkly.com, split.io, oxylabs.io), a games community (curseforge.com), an advertising network (media.net) and one publisher, hbr.org.
The range inside that list is wide. ubuntu.com contacted 3 companies. kaspersky.com contacted 22 and hbr.org 20, with 16 of hbr.org's inside the early window. porkbun.com, a domain registrar, contacted 17 with 14 inside the window — a heavier page than its business would suggest.
The banner mix
27 of the 75 sites carried a consent tool the crawl could detect: OneTrust seen alongside on 12, an IAB TCF banner on 8, Cookiebot on 4, Usercentrics on 2 and CookieYes on 1.
Roughly a third of the group, which is low for pages carrying this much advertising measurement. In the sample, oxylabs.io and launchdarkly.com ran Cookiebot, media.net and hbr.org a TCF banner, and bitdefender.net Usercentrics, while kaspersky.com, ubuntu.com, tailscale.com, split.io, porkbun.com, curseforge.com and no-ip.com showed nothing detectable. If you want the same breakdown for a single page rather than a group of 75, that is what MurmStack reports.
| Site | Companies | Before consent | First contact |
|---|---|---|---|
| kaspersky.com | 22 | 3 | 1460 ms |
| oxylabs.io | 12 | 2 | 857 ms |
| ubuntu.com | 3 | 1 | 401 ms |
| media.net | 8 | 8 | 745 ms |
| launchdarkly.com | 9 | 9 | 249 ms |
| hbr.org | 20 | 16 | 554 ms |
| no-ip.com | 11 | 7 | 1433 ms |
| curseforge.com | 13 | 13 | 226 ms |
| tailscale.com | 11 | 11 | 407 ms |
| split.io | 14 | 11 | 535 ms |
| bitdefender.net | 4 | 4 | 800 ms |
| porkbun.com | 17 | 14 | 951 ms |
| Tool | Sites |
|---|---|
| OneTrust | 12 |
| IAB TCF consent tool | 8 |
| Cookiebot | 4 |
| Usercentrics | 2 |
| CookieYes | 1 |
Seen on the same pages
Companies most often contacted by the same sites. Co-presence only — the crawl records what arrived, not who called whom.
- GoogleTogether on 71 of these sites
- MetaTogether on 23 of these sites
- LinkedInTogether on 20 of these sites
- Meta PixelTogether on 18 of these sites
- Amazon CloudFrontTogether on 16 of these sites
- jsDelivrTogether on 14 of these sites
- Cloudflare AnalyticsTogether on 13 of these sites
- OneTrustTogether on 11 of these sites
Questions
What does the Microsoft entry cover?
Contacts to Microsoft-operated hostnames that are not one of the products listed separately in this index, such as Microsoft Ads and Microsoft Clarity. It has no catalogue row of its own, so it is counted among the companies a page contacts and not among its trackers.
Why do these pages carry so many trackers?
The median is 4, twelfth of the 88 companies here. The co-presence list explains most of it: five of the ten most common companions are social advertising platforms — Meta, Meta Pixel, LinkedIn, X and Reddit Pixel — and all of them are catalogued and counted.
How many of the Microsoft sites showed a consent banner?
27 of 75. OneTrust was seen on 12 of them, an IAB TCF banner on 8, Cookiebot on 4, Usercentrics on 2 and CookieYes on 1.
Is 88% early contact high or low?
Low, relative to this index. 66 of the 75 sites recorded early contact, and that share ranks 75th of the 88 companies profiled here.