Move Over Alexa, Here Comes IZEARanks
The problem with web metrics provided by Alexa and Compete is that their numbers are totally dependent on what they gather from users who are using their Firefox and Internet Explorer toolbars. Mostly this consists of people who are trying to inflate their website’s Alexa and Compete ranking by running the toolbar. In other words, both Alexa and Compete’s data is meaningless.
There is a new kid on the web metrics block, IZEARanks, brought to you by the people behind PayPerPost. Their approach is to track real traffic ala Google Analytics by having users embed a snippet of script on their website, which sends unique visitor and pageview data back to IZEA. This will provide an accurate accounting of a website’s traffic ranking compared to other sites that are running the IZEA script. I think IZEARanks has a bright future because it provides real traffic data that can’t be manipulated the way that toolbar-dependent metrics can.
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Comment by BlogsPageRank on 15 February 2008:
Izearanks is the Alexa of splogs. Pure and simple.
Comment by Star Trekker on 10 February 2008:
Why do you say the length of our visit to a site can’t be measured?
BB
Comment by Robin on 25 January 2008:
Hi, From what I can gather the “democratic” aspect of the web, meaning the concept of a wide, virtually global, audience whose activity can be analysed by traffic monitoring algorithms, is a fiction on two counts. Firstly there is the fundamental and fatal problem of the completely unsuitable character of the only data that can be obtained (IP addresses). This is an innate technical problem which as far as I know is insoluable. You simply can’t make a silk purse out of a sow’s ear no matter how brilliant you are! But worse is that the use of this almost completely meaningless data drives advertising spend which drives the entire edifice of the http://www. To illustrate this, consider a simple example of a flawed-data driven solution. Google has a feature that “learns” from your visiting habits so that it can prioritise its display for you. Great, we think, less “junk”. It does this by analysing the sites you “hit”. Even assuming that this data didn’t have the fundamental flaws referred to above, AND is not biaased towards advertisers/google-analytics etc, the algorithm can obtain no information on whether the site you hit was relevant. We might open and close a site in moments, but the duration of our visit to a page cannot be measured. Even if it could some valuable resources take time to decipher and some are just full of rubbish. Both take time. We might surf as a function of successful research, or because the results we are getting are useless, poor quality, or irrelevant. As the “machine” cannot know this, it resorts to clever maths. The application of these results in the creation of a virtual herd. Natural herd insticts have evolved over time and similarly these virtual-herd-instincts do. a sort of mass-movement, similar to the mass-hysteria at 60’s pop-concerts, or tail-backs on motorways, or . Individually they drift away. It doesn’t matter what relevance the sites provided by the search are, those are the ones I must use. It is the science of self-fulfilling prophesy! I have been writing a blog on or off for over a year. I wanted to attract visitors. But as the ascendance of blogs up the listings of search engines grows the more frustrated I get. I don’t go to libraries to read the guest book diaries. I guess I have come to realise that IMHO there is such a thing as brilliance and that such merit cannot be awarded in any generalised democratic process either by man or machine.
Comment by Smackall on 23 January 2008:
Alexa gives good ranking only for top few sites. Few sites, I mean around 100K sites. Rest always keep moving in rank
Comment by Martin on 23 January 2008:
Alexa rankings are flawed and you can’t draw a conclusion easily. Two examples.
John Chow, last time I checked he was below 5K in Alexa with traffic below 200K per month. Why is that so ? Because many webmasters with the Alexa toolbar installed visit his website. why do they all have the Alexa toolbar installed ? Because some services use the Alexa rank, besides other parameters, to sell ads, links whatever on a blog.
Second example. I’m creating a web two-point-0 project with a friend of mine, the website is currently protected and no one can access it. The domain however does have a Alexa rank of roughly one million. Why is that ? Because I have the Alexa bar installed. The site supposedly ranks sub 30K for all sites of my country, to be exact 22K which is ridiculous.
Comment by Micah on 23 January 2008:
I think it’s a good idea, but Alexa is so far ahead of them…it’ll be hard to beat such a well established company. Anyway, Alexa is fine if you rank pretty high.