Site Meter causing Internet Explorer failure (UPDATED)

Morgan had informed me via e-mail that his blog and numerous others, including Brutally Honest, was not loading properly for readers using Internet Explorer.  All I've been able to find thus far is this:

According to a tip to The Inquisitr, the problem happens when anybody using Internet Explorer tries to open any sites with the Site Meter code present, and thousands of websites/blogs have been shut off from IE users, including PerezHilton.com and blogs in the Gawker Media stable.

Users of Internet Explorer receive the following message when visiting any site with Site Meter installed:

Internet Explorer cannot open the Internet site http://www.nameofsite.com
Operation aborted

A search using Google Blog Search found that the issue is widespread, and the only known solution at this time being to remove the SiteMeter embed code from the website or blog. Notably users of Firefox, Safari and other browsers are not affected by the issue.

So far, Sitemeter has made no official statement. More if we get it.

I've removed the offending code for now.  Suggest others do the same until the folks at SiteMeter weigh in.

UPDATE: Sitemeter tells us they've fixed the problem:

The problem was related to some work we were doing on the backend system for our upcoming website launch.

We’ve identified and resolved two separate but related issues -

1 - IE Users viewing pages - There was a problem with users who placed their SiteMeter tracking code outside of their HTML Body Tag. Because of the changes we made this created a failure for visitors viewing sites using Internet Explorer 7.

2 - Accessing SiteMeter and Stats - Individuals trying to access or view their SiteMeter stats by clicking on their SiteMeter logo/icons were unable to gain access. This again appears to have affected only individuals using IE7.

At this time both problems have been fixed and our services are fully operational.

Comments

[Locutisprime]

Thanks for the heads up Rick. I use Firefox, so haven't encountered it.

[Luboš Motl]

Eight methods to cure the bug, with the explanation of the cause: http://motls.blogspot.com/2008/08/fix-internet-explorer-7-with-sitemeter.html

[Mommynator]

I've used Firefox for years for security reasons and also because it's faster.

I suggest people may want to switch over.