Comments on: More reasons as to why Alexa is broken

By: Ran

Ran — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

I started long ago to use quantcast and compete. To get the best picture, I recommend using the three together.

By: centernetworks

centernetworks — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Yep – I agree Ran – but I am not even sure if Alexa should be used in the 3 you mention.

By: Geoff

Geoff — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

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.

By: centernetworks

centernetworks — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

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.