Compete Archive

Back in the old days of the Internet, it was relatively simple to compare site A to site B. Of course most sites fibbed on their numbers, but traffic was traffic. A user would visit a site and record a hit or a pageview. There were no embed options, no video players on multiple sites, no widgets, no Ajax.

Then we received Alexa and later on sites like Compete and Quantcast. Each one has its pros and cons, though most agree that Alexa is the worst of the bunch. Quantcast has the most promise of a real comparison because they let you put the tracking code directly on your site or blog. But the issue with Quantcast is this: why should I put Quantcast on my site, when my competitors don’t and they may wind up overreporting because they take Quantcast’s default numbers.

Last night I had dinner with a great group of people, mostly fashion bloggers, and we discussed widgets for a bit. The big issue with widgets and widget advertising is how will reporting and analytics work. Without a strong reporting engine, sell-in to agencies will be very difficult. It’s easy to look at traditional Web ads on site A and site B and see which one performs better. But what about with widgets? How do you compare effectiveness?

Last night, Mike Arrington posted an article about white-label social networking company Flux and their apparent huge increase in traffic. A chart from comScore shows an enormous increase in traffic for Flux from November 2007 forward. Arrington suggests that the traffic increase is due to, "Flux … had the benefit of not only Viacom’s money but also their brands – at launch hundreds of Viacom properties launched Flux social networks, including their MTV brands."

I wanted to post a reply straight away but had to leave for dinner. The question about the traffic increase is whether it comes from a Viacom push or whether it comes from Flux’s widget strategy? Back in November, TechCrunch wrote about Flux opening up their platform. At that time, they installed the widget displayed below. Not sure if it was a paid widget like the HP printing one, but in any event, did loads on that widget help to boost Flux’s traffic? The widget loads a Javascript on flux.com along with what looks like a customized image for TC for the Flux share. Did either of these hits register to comScore? Now take this share widget, and place it on 200 other sites. If the hit counted, now you get an idea on how quickly traffic can build for Flux. Unlike a normal widget, the issue with these loads (if counted) is that very few (if any) ever visited Flux via clicking the share button.

While I can’t give you 100% proof that this is what’s happening and I certainly hope that it isn’t, this discussion is the most recent example of why we need a real comparison engine. One that can properly handle today’s technologies.

When I met with KickApps to discuss their latest release we discussed comparisons to Ning. It’s not easy to compare KickApps to Ning in that KA isn’t hosted on kickapps.com whereas Ning hosts all of their social networks on ning.com.

The real issue is when advertisers, public relations teams, writers, journalists, etc., make decisions based on numbers they read on one of the current comparison engines alone. I’ve seen it hundreds of times over the past decade, especially with agencies pitching a site to advertise on. Of course, the site in the lead is happy to point you to one of the current comparison engines to show off how great they are. Perhaps there is a startup opportunity here. Not as sexy as a Facebook poke app, but could be very valuable to the industry at large.

Compete has a blog post today showing some of the fastest moving sites from December 2006 to December 2007. Many of the sites we’ve covered in the past are listed. On the positive side, sites include TechCrunch, CafeMom, WordPress, LinkedIn, and Reddit. On the downside are sites including Vonage, Netscape and American Singles. I am shocked that Twitter isn’t on the list with an Alexa of 600!

As an analytics freak, when I saw the report on TechCrunch, I immediately wondered how they got the percentage increases – for example, iamfreetonight, a startup covered on CN, is up 32,000%. They are a new site in 2007 so a large increase is probably more reasonable than say CafeMom which apparently grew 2,320%? My guess is that the percentages are missing a decimal place perhaps? In any event, the ranking is most likely correct so congrats to those listed!

They note, "The chart above shows the top twenty sites that gained or lost the most amount of traffic from December 2006 to December 2007, as a percentage of visits in December 2006."

I’ve got an email into Compete and will report back once I get an update. 

Updates From Compete: this analysis was based off of total site visits, not unique visitors. They also sent over three examples for the math:

• The 3,621,137 visits to iamfreetonight.com in 2007 was a change from around 11,000 in 2006.
• Techcrunch’s total visits were in December 2006 was 114,453, December 2007 was 3,822,308
• Cafemom’s total visits were in December 2006 were 212,709, December 2007 were 5,147,004

Compete has announced two new services to their current lineup; an ad effectiveness tool and a top site lists tool.

The ad effectiveness tool is named Ad Analyzer, Compete believes this is the industry’s first service to track online advertising performance beyond simple impressions and click-through metrics. From their product overview, “lets marketers measure the impact of ads on consumer behavior within target customer segments and across channels to maximize online advertising ROI. Marketers are shifting an increasing portion of their advertising budget online, and they need precise and detailed information about how their campaigns impact engagement, loyalty and online and offline retail sales.”

I tried to login to the tool, but it doesn’t appear to be live as of yet. Once I get a chance to play with the tool, I will provide a review. My first question is whether their “impact metrics” will go past the pageview and will provide more insight. If so, perhaps it could help publishers like myself sell more ads. We still need to move the buy-side away from the default pageview bundle buy.

The top sites tool lets you purchase a report of the top 15,000 web sites for $1,000 for any term(s) you desire. The reports are ready in 24 hours and can be ranked on any metric that Compete reports on. If Compete was smart, they would include an hour of expert analysis via phone when you purchase one of these reports. Then they could grow an analytics consulting practice as well build on top of the Compete platform. I will take 10% of first year profits for the idea :)

It’s interesting to watch Compete continue to expand while Alexa just is stagnant. Alexa could have been something.

Day #9 in the Ten Days of Holiday Gifts comes from Compete. With Compete, you can identify rival search marketing strategies to take your SEM and SEO efforts to the next level, and stay on top of rivals with site metrics and audience profiles. Compete has launched a search analytics product and they have been kind enough to give us 250 credits to give away. Check out all of our Compete coverage.

Just for readers of CenterNetworks, Compete is offering 10 CN readers 25 search engine analytics credits. To enter, send in an entry using our contact form. We will select the winners this weekend!

(I’ve turned off comments on this post to avoid any entry confusion)

I’d like to thank each one of you for your loyalty and patronage over the past year. I’ve got a full recap coming but it’s simply amazing where CN has grown and of course it’s thanks to each of you. Like the Wine Man says, "It’s a lot of you and a little of me and together we are changing the tech industry." (I tweaked it a bit).

With that said, I’ve been working hard to line up a variety of exclusive Holiday Gifts for you. Over the next ten business days, there will be one gift each day. From service discounts, to premium beta access to free conference passes, we’ve got something you will like!

In the graphic below, you will note one slot with ??? in it. That’s because I have left one slot open. I’d like your feedback on who should fill that slot and I will go after them! Leave your ideas in the comments. And if you have a service to offer as a treat, contact us. It can’t be a free service is the only rule.

Here’s who’s participating — pretty impressive lineup!:

• OurStage – 12 free song downloads – get holiday gift
• Compete – free credits towards the search analytics tool – get holiday gift
• Clicky – two free pro accounts – get holiday gift
• Freshbooks – 30% off new subscriptions – get holiday gift
• TapeFailure – 40% off new subscriptions – get holiday gift
• Drop.io – free premium upgrade codes – get holiday gift
• CrazyEgg – Some pro accounts – get holiday gift
• Future of Web Apps in Miami – 5 free conference passes – get holiday gift
• CenterNetworks – 50% off job board posts – get holiday gift

Update: Please DO NOT signup for TapeFailure – the site will be closing at the end of this month :(

You won’t know which Holiday Gift will come which day nor what time – so be on the lookout! Happy Holidays and Happy New Year to All!

As we near the close of October, I would like to thank each of you for reading CN along with all of the great comments and feedback we receive on a daily basis, keep ‘em coming. Our wheels keep spinning thanks to our great sponsors. Please take a moment out of your day and visit their products and services and show your support for CN.

Compete

Powered by the largest pool of online consumer behavior data in the industry, Compete.com is the only online competitive intelligence service that combines site and search analytics in one site to help you quickly master online marketing. With Compete.com, you can identify rival search marketing strategies to take your SEM and SEO efforts to the next level, and stay on top of rivals with site metrics and audience profiles. Check out their award blog and get an insider view of industry trends and interesting takes on traffic data.

Zoho

Zoho is one of the leaders in online office suites, Zoho launched Zoho Database and Reports this month. It’s a better version of MS Access and is available online. Another exciting update is their Facebook app which lets you share your Zoho docs within your facebook account. Check out the Zoho blog for all of their latest news along with some interesting industry commentary.

The Go BIG Network

Go BIG Network, the World’s Biggest Community of Startup companies was recently ranked in HRWorld’s Top 10 Resources to Attract, Retain and Use Rock Star Programmers. Go BIG has been successfully connecting startups with full-time and contract/freelance talent from programmers to C-Level executives. Check out their Startup Jobs and Projects area for more info.

SocialXperience

SocialXperience.com is a recently launched social networking / web 2.0 blog that is edited by the teams behind some of the most popular sites on the net. Its customizable Ajax user interface and collaborative nature set it apart from other blogs of the same topic that have received much attention over the past year.

WingSix

WingSix provides the hosting and server support for CenterNetworks. We have seen huge traffic increases over the past month and haven’t been down at all! They have the absolute best technical support in the hosting business and it isn’t outsourced.

New Conference Sponsorships

We are excited to introduce a new sponsorship option on CenterNetworks. Our in-depth conference coverage is some of the most popular content on CN and as such, we are opening it up to sponsorship. For each conference we cover, you can sign-up to "sponsor" coverage of a specific conference. For a nomimal fee, you will receive your logo or banner within each conference coverage post. What’s great about this is your logo and link will remain on the post indefinitely and in addition will reach our RSS subscriber base as well. You can purchase a NYC-specific package as well. Contact us if interested, spaces will be sold on a first-come, first-served basis and BlogWorld Expo is fast approaching!

And lastly, don’t forget about the CenterNetworks Job Board and PR Service.

Compete, the Web site tracking service, is set to roll-out a new homepage and improved navigation. All I can say is hallelujah! I wrote about my navigation issues while using the new Search Analytics product. More details on the upgrade are available on the Compete blog.