Alexa to the rescue..

Very useful tool...

Published on July 28, 2004 By Draginol In Internet

If you are curious to see how popular different sites are on the net, the tool I use is the Alexa toolbar. I know some programs list it as "spyware" but it really isn't, not in the bad sense anyway.

Very often websites will claim to be incredibly popular but one check with Alexa will show just how popular they are. See link below.

Alexa Toolbar 7

Comments

Mr_Frog

on Jul 29, 2004

How well does the popup manager work? I use the Google toolbar, and the popup blocker gets about 95% of them.

-- B

Daniel Barnhoorn

on Jul 29, 2004

So any info on what Alexa bases those figures on? Are they from people using the toolbar? Or are they monitoring every packet on the internet?

Larry Kuperman

on Jul 29, 2004

"By analyzing the data we receive from our updated snapshots of the Web, we can tell our users how their traffic ranks in comparison to other web sites and how many other sites link to that site. We can also derive a popularity rating from our user base and share that rating with our community of users. "

Exerpted from http://pages.alexa.com/company/technology.html

Alexa Rankings are based in part on changes in the web and in part on user data.

There is a cautionary note here. In order to collect data from users, Alexa has to "phone home" or send data back to it's servers. Which leads to applications like Adaware detecting it as Spyware. (By the way, the Google Toolbar also sends data back, although you can opt out of it more easily.) Thats how the Google Rankings are determined as well.

Draginol

on Jul 29, 2004

I don't find Google's ranking to be very accurate. Alexa is much more accurate in my experience. It's a very VERY useful tool.

GreenReaper

on Jul 29, 2004

Now, if only it worked with Firefox.

joetheblow

on Jul 30, 2004

I think Google's toobar as well as MSN and now this one (and some others) are the only reasons why I use eplorer as much as I do.

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