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More reasons as to why Alexa is broken
Back in November, I discussed Alexa when Jason Calacanis discussed how he could easily game the system by just using a couple computers and an internet connection. Today I want to give you a few more concrete reasons why Alexa is broken.
Reason 1 – backlinks are not working
The backlinks currently displayed for CenterNetworks are the same backlinks they displayed over 2 years ago. They are for when the site was a web development site. So in the 6 months that CN has been up in its current state, the links have not been updated. See the image below.
Reason 2 – Today does not mean Today
Most times when someone says to you, let's meet today at 3pm, you expect to meet today. Well in the land that is Alexa, today does not mean today. Typically today means 24-48 hours after today. Bigger sites will never notice this as their traffic tends to trend the same everyday. Yet, when new sites receive traffic spikes, today tells you a lot.
Reason 3 – Traffic is still missing
This past Sunday we had a HUGE spike in traffic due to being slashdotted. We had just under 28,000 visitors and about 20,000 unique visitors. This also led to higher than normal traffic on Monday. But as you can see from the chart below, we seem to show outside the top 100k for today, and yesterday, and the day before, etc. Clearly something is wrong. This happened once before, I emailed Alexa support and after a week I received a reply that basically that was your traffic. Now I understand that not everyone uses the toolbar, but I have to believe that at least a percentage of the new unique visitors do.
Summary
I still say the same thing I have for years: Alexa is broken. Yet, we rely on it. I used to believe that the trending graphs could at least provide some basis, but I don't believe that anymore either based on what I see for CN.
I started long ago to use quantcast and compete. To get the best picture, I recommend using the three together.
Yep – I agree Ran – but I am not even sure if Alexa should be used in the 3 you mention.
I agree with all of your criticisms of Alexa, but don’t see any viable alternative. Let’s take all of your complaints together: The “Related Links” are stale, The “Today” label really means “Yesterday” and the daily figures are less reliable. Yes.
So, what’s the alternative? Let’s go with your suggestion to try compete and quantcast. OK, first up, quantcast: a) Oops, there are no “Related Links”, b) Oops, there is no traffic data at all, much less daily data, c) again, no data.
Now, let’s give compete a shot: a) Oops, there are no “Related Links”, b) Oops, there is no daily traffic data, c) again, there is only monthly data. (a question to you: is Compete accurate?)
So, in theory, using all 3 sources is valuable. But in practice, it is another story.
My suggestion, stick with Alexa. It is getting better all the time. There’s nothing like a little competition to get things moving. In fact, check back later this week for some big changes.
Oh, and regarding Calacanis, you’ll note that he never followed up as he said he would. His gaming experiment failed. He had a similar failed gaming experiment with Digg. It is curious.
Thanks Geoff for the reply. I will assume you work for Alexa since that's the URL you associated with your name. If not, please correct me.
I have been trying to think of an analogy to illustrate why I think it's broken not imperfect. So here goes (I can't promise this will make sense as I am on medication for a bad flu-like symptom)… If I buy a walkman and every tape I put in plays backwards, would the store tell me it's broken or it's imperfect?
Forget comparisons to the other services. Let's fix Alexa. Let's look at the related links. What does it really take to get that updated? C'mon. That would be a great start if I woke up in the morning and that was fixed.
BTW, I agree with you completely about Calacanis. I called him on it in the comments on his site. He gets everyone to do what he says and then doesn't even report on the progress? You won't see that here.
I am excited to see the changes you are planning and I would love to do an interview with someone from Alexa sometime. Wouldn't it be a great story for 2007 if Alexa could really become a dominant force in reporting for sites instead of what most people think of it today as? And to answer your question… none of the services are today (or probably ever) 100% accurate. I found Hitwise to be close but still misses the boat sometimes.