Webdiro Directory : web information guide

History

Alexa has been around for quite a while and really got noticed in 1998 when Netscape first included the toolbar in the Netscape 4 versions default installation.  That led to being included in Internet Explorer 4 only a year later.

Most users of those browsers at the time just assumed that the toolbar was a part of the browser.  The user base at the time was around three million which was a big number in 1999 and probably their largest base.

The increase in use led to interest in the company and in 2000 Amazon.com purchased Alexa which was bad timing as Microsoft then chose not to include the toolbar in the IE 5.0 release.  Sure surfers could still use the toolbar, but instead of it being pre-installed they had to go find the site and download the toolbar themselves. 

This change caused the base of users to start to shift.  More tech-savvy surfers were becoming concerned with spyware and the way that Alexa was reporting the traffic habits of surfers did not go over well with them.  Less tech-savvy users found the features useful and continued on with it. 

The Firefox browser started to gain some momentum in 2004 in the more tech-savvy sector and with it Alexa has also.  They were finding the traffic statistics had value in determining the value of websites and the user base has shifted towards the more tech-savvy again and caused some growth.

Viewpoint

Alexa is really a pretty simple concept.  They use a sample based system and gather anonymous information from those surfers that have a toolbar installed (estimated at a couple million).  When you are dealing with any sample based system there is a possibility for a wide margin of error.

It does make for an easier way of measuring the popularity of the bigger websites and gauge if it is increasing, decreasing or flat-lining.  There are those that say it is not accurate, but an argument can be made that if it is inaccurate, it is that way across the board.

Pros

• You get some free features including Alexa ranking for any site you’re visiting and domain registration information with a click when you want to know the WHOIS information on a site.
• Graph of the historical traffic data for a site to easily see its progress.
• Get the sites ranking on the web with just a trip to the Alexa-website.
• The data is provided free of charge.

Cons

• Only visits by those that use the toolbar are tracked so when calculating the ranking the visits by those that don’t use the toolbar do not count.
• The toolbar requires download and installation which requires some technical knowledge that keeps some surfers from using it.
• Alexa data is only really useful for service sites. That means sites where the service is obtained. Sites like General Electric or General Motors should not really be compared using Alexa while it is very useful for sites like Google or Yahoo!
• Any sites that use secure pages or sites that have multiple domains are not very well represented with Alexa.

Conclusion

Alexa is a tool and like any tool it can be useful when you understand its limitations and use the data accordingly.  Yes it only accounts for the visits by the users that have the toolbar installed, but it is that way across the board.  It makes one think that if it is inaccurate, at least it is equally inaccurate for everyone.

I find it useful in tracking a sites increase or decrease in popularity over time.  It is one way you can see what effects your promotional efforts or external environmental conditions are having with traffic.