Traffic measuring tool Sitemeter is blocking users of Internet Explorer from accessing sites using the service.

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.

Update: thx to Steve Hodson of WinExtra, a pic of the issue in the wild: