Comments on: Alexa’s Make Believe Internet

By: D.I.A Free News Online 2008 » Techcrunch: Alexa Overhauls Ranking System

D.I.A Free News Online 2008 » Techcrunch: Alexa Overhauls Ranking System — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 13:31:37 +0000

[...] regularly derided in the past for its often bizarre results (like YouTube having more traffic that Google), Alexa has [...]

By: Veranderingen in Alexa ranking | Jelmer de Jong

Veranderingen in Alexa ranking | Jelmer de Jong — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 07:57:50 +0000

[...] Een hiervan is de Alexa ranking. Een populaire tool die echter de laatste tijd vertrouwen verloor: “Alexa seems to get everything wrong, no matter how large or small the site.” en “Alexa Says YouTube Is Now Bigger Than Google. Alexa Is Useless”. Niet bepaald [...]

By: Alexa Overhauls Ranking System

Alexa Overhauls Ranking System — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 01:03:30 +0000

[...] regularly derided in the past for its often bizarre results (like YouTube having more traffic that Google), Alexa has [...]

By: Andreessen Responds On Ning Porn: It’s About Being Pro-Freedom

Andreessen Responds On Ning Porn: It’s About Being Pro-Freedom — Sun, 06 Jan 2008 05:41:05 +0000

[...] There’s a couple of different arguments in play here. Andreessen argues that Quantcast, along with most tracking services don’t accurately reflect actual traffic and that traffic to Ning does not have a heavy preference for porn related social networking sites. It’s an old argument that is likely true, but we won’t dedicate a post (at least today) to the flaws of online tracking services. You can always read Michael’s various anti-Alexa posts here and here. [...]

By: Squeaky

Squeaky — Tue, 25 Dec 2007 03:50:18 +0000

I am not sure why so many people have brought into the whole Alexa stats to be the real deal about web traffic statics.
From the directory business ends of things, I believe that of 70% of people who submit to web directories, still base it on Alexa stats and Google PageRank. Most of us know that it is very easy to fake Alexa traffic, just by purchasing traffic as you see on most forums.
For the most part, I have noticed over a 20% decrease in Alexa traffic in one of my directories and most of this is caused by that there is not Alexa toolbar for Windows Vista Users. While many business sites online attract visitors that are business based and there OS is Vista, it hurts many sites as far as what our true web traffic stats are.

So, when I think friend or foe. I vote foe for, Alexa…

By: Christian Rodriguez

Christian Rodriguez — Mon, 10 Dec 2007 16:06:22 +0000

The truth is that none of these sites are accurate. But if I were to pick a winner it would be Google Analytics. Its too bad they can’t release the real trafffic figures…….

By: methews

methews — Wed, 28 Nov 2007 01:38:55 +0000

come here please
http://www.zjol.com.cn

By: methews

methews — Wed, 28 Nov 2007 01:31:27 +0000

not many using alexa toolbar in china

By: Dario Salvelli

Dario Salvelli — Tue, 27 Nov 2007 07:52:59 +0000

I don’t know: we continue to consider Alex an affidable service. They use a toolbar..

By: Ventrilo Servers

Ventrilo Servers — Tue, 27 Nov 2007 07:11:32 +0000

I still disagree that Alexa is at all useful in terms of judging how popular a site is — it’s all relative considering tracking is done through those who use the toolbar.

By: Statsandwich

Statsandwich — Tue, 27 Nov 2007 01:41:17 +0000

@44

Narus uses technology from visualsciences.com to analyze the data. collected in concert with webserver receiving|processing requests(for http(s) data). it can also be used on telecom switches.

the big kids on the block(visual sciences, omniture, webtrends, coremetrics, etc.) track far more accurate than alexa, comScore or any other sampling garbage out there. people just aren’t ready to pay to hear the truth, they’d rather get inflated numbers for free.

By: Marek

Marek — Mon, 26 Nov 2007 21:44:05 +0000

Michael,

1. What data do you have to counter Alexa’s claims that YouTube passed Google[.com] in terms of page views internationally? You keep repeating Alexa is wrong in that matter without providing any sensible reason.

2. Alexa blog has a good post explaining issues you ignored or weren’t aware of when bashing Alexa previously: http://awis.blogspot.com/2007/.....utube.html

3. In this post you’re confusing audience (visitors) with traffic rank (visitors + page views) which is a lame mistake.

4. In Poland, there’s company (Gemius) which monitors about 50-60% of all page views on Polish web sites with site-centric scripts. They have exact stats for most large and midsize sites and surprisingly their site-centric stats prove Alexa is very accurate even for hundreds times smaller Polish sites than YouTube and Facebook. Alexa looks wrong only if mix up apples with oranges.

By: Devrim Demirel

Devrim Demirel — Mon, 26 Nov 2007 20:04:04 +0000

Facebook has great momentum, with great unique traffic worldwide.

I have also commented your Google/Youtube post, Michael. I think you could not be able to read that, it was one of the last comments.

I think Alexa results are likely to be more correct than competitors in both situations. Facebook is gaining great popularity in international arena, as Youtube does. I have already stated why i believe Alexa was correct in my comment about Alexa stats on Google/Youtube.

Alexa is very good in estimates for the first 1.000 web sites, especially when you are comparing traffic relatively.

By: David Payne

David Payne — Mon, 26 Nov 2007 20:01:12 +0000

When, oh when, will Google launch an Alexa equivilent? Their toolbar has a much wider install base. I’ve been begging for this from Google for over a year now.

Do you know anyone that has the Alexa Toolbar installed? Maybe if it gave you a discount at Amazon.com people would install it. Maybe if they promoted the Alexa Toolbar on Amazon it would get some attention. But, right now, the only people that have heard of Alexa are people that care about online marketing.

Alexa thinks Facebook beat MySpace because people that care about online marketing most likely have a Facebook account (i.e. it’s more professional than MySpace) versus a MySpace account.

*ending rant*

By: Mark

Mark — Mon, 26 Nov 2007 19:08:55 +0000

I actually don’t find it that hard to believe that Facebook passed MySpace for a couple days before Thanksgiving.

Michael, you say MySpace is at “109 million/month, whereas Facebook is at 86 million.” Assuming that tracks globals (not just US), thats what, 20% off? Not much… and is that for October? Facebook is rapidly growing, so if we assume Compete is more accurate than Alexa, Facebook is at most 20% below MySpace.

As a Facebook developer with 2 top 100 apps, I can tell you that Facebook’s traffic peaks on Thursdays and that traffic is a good 20-30% more than on Saturdays.

Why does traffic peak on Thursday? I’m guessing people are making plans for the weekend and mentally “checking out” for the week. So its not hard to believe that with American Thanksgiving, the only four-day weekend and the biggest travel time of the year, traffic peaked more than ever on Wednesday… and beat out MySpace.

I agree Alexa isn’t very good for the little sites… but I find it hard to believe it could be very far off here.

By: Justa Poster

Justa Poster — Mon, 26 Nov 2007 19:01:30 +0000

As someone who dosn’t really follow traffic trends, but finds the article interesting, do you think you could explain why it is that you claim that Alexa is wrong and Comscore is right? Atleast for me, it would not be surprising at all if more people visited Facebook than myspace, and Youtube then Google.

By: Rob L.

Rob L. — Mon, 26 Nov 2007 18:46:11 +0000

Note that even more acknowledged (and expensive) sources like comScore and NetRatings have their issues too. We pulled together data from Facebook themselves on their targetable users and compared it to comScore’s figures and found some jarring discrepancies, especially in light of the hou-ha about the oldening profile of MySpace and Facebook widely reported a few months ago. It looks like those assertions on their audiences might be divorced from reality:

http://cpmadvisors.com/2007/co.....k-reality/

By: Niko Bellic

Niko Bellic — Mon, 26 Nov 2007 18:44:13 +0000

Actually Quantcast and Compete are garbage as well, they’re way off even on bigger sites. They’re really no better or worse then Alexa. Alexa makes bad generalizations based on that stupid toolbar, but Quantcast and Compete just wing the number based off of an even more arbitrary guess (mix of backlinks in search engines, and just sheer guessing).

By: TJ Mahony

TJ Mahony — Mon, 26 Nov 2007 18:32:15 +0000

To be clear, Compete does not rely on Toolbars like Alexa. As a former employee of Compete, I can tell you that a very small percentage of Compete’s panel is acquired through its toolbar. Compete invests heavily in ISP partnerships (similar to Hitwise) and application partnerships (like comScore) to derive it’s 2M member panel. Compete is the only service out their that blends multiple data sources, so its erroneous to bucket its methodology with Alexa.

By: Tom

Tom — Mon, 26 Nov 2007 18:25:59 +0000

The graph does not represent page views, it shows the site’s Alexa rating. Myspace was constantly ranked at #6 (or whatever it is) for the duration of the flat line.

“Daily Traffic *Rank* Trend”
Doesn’t anyone read graph titles anymore??

By: Support this story on Stirrdup

Support this story on Stirrdup — Mon, 26 Nov 2007 18:24:44 +0000

Alexas Make Believe Internet…

This story has been submitted to Stirrdup. Your support can help it become hot….

By: Freelance Guru

Freelance Guru — Mon, 26 Nov 2007 18:16:40 +0000

Just my opinion, but I think that to provide reliable stats using Alexa’s model we’d need someone big like Microsoft to start publishing traffic stats based on IE (sorry to all I’m not a huge fan myself but would be a much more reliable way of doing it) or at least Google (through its Toolbar).

I really don’t see how Alexa can have information that is anywhere near the real deal - I don’t know a single person that has the Alexa toolbar installed (especially in the UK/Europe).

Agree with the comment that Alexa information is becoming more and more irrelevant over time, using data from ISPs would be another interesting way of doing it!

By: Richard

Richard — Mon, 26 Nov 2007 18:15:48 +0000

No-one outside North-America uses myspace…

By: Andy Hudson

Andy Hudson — Mon, 26 Nov 2007 18:09:44 +0000

How can the myspace usage be flat for so long? To me it implies no data for that period

By: Searchquant

Searchquant — Mon, 26 Nov 2007 17:27:17 +0000

OK, so the general consensus here is that *none* of the top measurement firms (Comscore, Nielsen/NetRatings, Compete.com, Quantcast) produce data that can be considered consistently accurate. Do you mean to tell me that Wall St has been making huge investment decisions on companies like Google, Yahoo, EBay and others based on completely useless data?

Comscore, Compete.com and Nielsen regularly put out search engine marketshare data, and those announcements are picked up by Wall St and send search engine stocks moving. How is it possible that they could be wrong when looking at such huge sites?