When the visitor goes off-site, the destination site does not report the fact for the previous site's logs. One way to measure the time spent on the last page visited is to have all off-site links launch a CGI program that logs the time of the click. This will not catch all visitor abandonments because bookmarked links and URLs typed directly into the browser are not measured. But those that are measured will be accurate. A site that is entirely database generated has the opportunity for the most accurate tracking.
Great artists learn by copying the masters.
Actually, the reason isn't that noble. When I realized the program could also be used to view the source code of framesets, external JavaScript files, and external CSS files, I decided to make it a free download. Because I learn much by seeing how others do things, I thought our visitors might benefit in that way, too. Master Snooper is one of the most popular downloads from the Master Series of CGI Scripts, right behind Master Recommend. His website offers numerous CGI programs for webmasters, netpreneurs and online publishers.