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bgetting

For those of you that are unfamiliar with Alexa, they provide a web traffic ranking service which can be found at:

http://www.alexa.com

As far as I have been able to figure, Alexa works by collecting data from people that have the Alexa Toolbar installed in their browsers. From that they seem to be able to kick out a traffic ranking and reach numbers for a website.

We have been having discussions around here about how accurate it is, or even how it really works. I was hoping perhaps someone else knows the answer. Does anyone else have any experience with Alexa Traffic Rankings? Does anyone know how they are determined and what factors effect them?

Thanks.

dibber · **Date:** Wed Aug 02, 2006 10:37 am **Subject:**

They don't go into great detail but here is what they have in their 'Help' section:

http://www.alexa.com/site/help/traffic_learn_more

Between people stuck in AOL, using ISP discs for MSN, Earthlink, etc, and as many freeware apps and plugins that bundle either Google or Yahoo's toolbar, and all the adware toolbars slipped into people's computers; I wonder how many people even use Alexa's. I can't find any data in reference to that which would indicate the usefullness of the data collected.

On the other hand, relative to my time spent on the web, the results seem fairly accurate to what I would expect.

Speaking of Alexa results, wow, the authors over at MySpace.com are just laughing all the way to the bank! Bumped MSN to 4th...

Euan · **Date:** Thu Aug 03, 2006 1:44 am **Subject:**

It's not something I've really looked into to be honest - I've barely got enough time dealing with everything else Wink

rizzy · **Date:** Wed Nov 15, 2006 1:27 pm **Subject:**

I don't think in any way Alexa collects enough data to report accurately. I am really surprised at the amount of people that use Alexa as a measuring stick. I do not know one person that has their toolbar installed on their computer.

Now if Google or Yahoo put out information like Alexa then I think they would have enough data to report accurately.

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