Alexa

[epix]

Any of you messed with this? I think its the coolest thing in the world. Ive never used Google or Yahoos little Rating things, but Alexa is a little toolbar that tells you your rating of over all pages on the internet according to Traffic. Like yahoo is #1, Google is #3 etc. Alot of sites arent even on the list, just says no data. I somehow, after starting my site last month am already at 3,000,000 something hehe... Now my grandad has a site thats tiny.. never uses it. Has not advertised it at all.. yet hes ranked 450,000 or so... I guess his domain is typed in alot. www.laxmann.com.

 

Anyhow, this thing is really cool like I said. You can see what sites link to you, and what pages people that visit your site visit as well etc. etc. Lost of intresting facts about your site. Then once you get under 500,000 you see all about how fast your site is, site traffic and other goodies.

 

Let me know what you guys think of this thing.

[Deverill]

Anyhow, this thing is really cool like I said. You can see what sites link to you, and what pages people that visit your site visit as well etc. etc. Lost of intresting facts about your site.

It may not be as cool as it seems. Here are some more facts about Alexa.

• It is not a true measure of traffic.
  It shows so-called stats based on the number of visitors that have their bar loaded. It is not an indication of anything, really.
   
  
• Google and others can show who links with less privacy problems.
  Just put +www.+mydomain.+com into Google to see who's linking to your site. It's a lot more reliable than Alexa.
   
  
• They are recording your browsing steps.
  The way they tell you that people browsing your site also went to this and that is that they track your web movements. This alarms most folks and I for one am not interested in that level of scrutiny.
  

I hope it works out for you since you seem to enjoy it so much but make sure you read all the "fine print" that goes with it.

[epix]

ah, thats no good. I honestly dont know much about it. Just thought it was neat, have never tried Googles or yahoos.. so i guess ill go that way.

[TCH-Don]

I have always wondered if they were some sort of spyware.

I did find this link Is Alexa Spying On You that helps to explain a little more.

[Deverill]

Thanks for the link Don. I guess the bottom line is that anything you load has your permission to really mess up your life whether you realize that or not.

 

Fortunately, most of them don't choose to do so.

[cmuskett]

Alexa is one of the programs that SpyBot Search and Destroy searches for.

[epix]

haha thats intresting. Very strange since they are affiliated with some big names. Specially amazon.

[musicfrisk]

Anyhow, this thing is really cool like I said. You can see what sites link to you, and what pages people that visit your site visit as well etc. etc. Lost of intresting facts about your site.

It may not be as cool as it seems. Here are some more facts about Alexa.

• It is not a true measure of traffic.
  It shows so-called stats based on the number of visitors that have their bar loaded. It is not an indication of anything, really.
   
  
• Google and others can show who links with less privacy problems.
  Just put +www.+mydomain.+com into Google to see who's linking to your site. It's a lot more reliable than Alexa.
   
  
• They are recording your browsing steps.
  The way they tell you that people browsing your site also went to this and that is that they track your web movements. This alarms most folks and I for one am not interested in that level of scrutiny.
  

I hope it works out for you since you seem to enjoy it so much but make sure you read all the "fine print" that goes with it.

While everything you say is 100% true Thumbs Up , it doesn't mean that people (who work for cheap companies) aren't using it as a proxy for "real data". For my site, my alexa rating often gets mentioned. The good news is just one or two of those spyware bars and some surfing of your site allows you to make the numbers respectable if you care to bother.

[Deverill]

it doesn't mean that people (who work for cheap companies) aren't using it as a proxy for "real data".

Of course not. If I were a shady character I'd load it up and ping a client all day and then brag about how great my work was. It's a good point you make and reinforces my premise that it really doesn't show much that's useful.