Developer replaces free hit counter API with Firebase after mobile blocking issues

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A developer building a static web app called Daily Doodle attempted to add a simple visitor hit counter using a free third-party API, countapi.mileshilliard.com. The counter worked correctly on desktop browsers but consistently failed to update on mobile devices, with no visible error shown to users. Investigation revealed the likely cause was the API's domain being blocked at the network level by ad blockers or mobile carrier filters. Switching to Firebase Realtime Database resolved the issue, as Google's infrastructure domain is rarely blocked by such filters. The developer shared a step-by-step setup using Firebase's REST API with server-side atomic increments, requiring no SDK or authentication under the free Spark plan.

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