insight Archive

Earlier this week, AppNexus CEO Brian O’Kelley presented an overview of AppNexus and I’ve embedded the video below. AppNexus is a next-generation cloud computing service. If you understand how Amazon’s Web Services work, AppNexus is similar in concept. We currently host CN with a cloud company, Mosso.

The goal of the AppNexus service is to make things fast, make things scale and make things easier. They currently have two "Nexus points" – basically server locations and are building out from there.

When I step into a fight I make sure that I have the needed ammunition to win. If you use a gun in battle, make sure it has bullets. If you fight online, make sure you have the right tools to win.

Yesterday Owen Thomas at Valleywag used Alexa to point out how poorly Mahalo is doing. As most of you know I am not a fan of Mahalo. But using Alexa to try to make Mahalo appear a joke is plain stupid. All it does is draw more attention to Mahalo. There are plenty of other ways to pick on Mahalo. :)

What the chart that Owen embedded shows is the topic I discussed last week that the initial "celebuzz" can only take one only so far. Now it's up to the product and Jason to get the buzz to continue and to grow.

The issue with using Alexa to do battle with is a topic we have discussed numerous times on CN. There is so much more that is wrong with Alexa than is right. While Alexa can sometimes be used as a rough guide for tech only sites, I would never use it in a battle.

Services such as Hitwise and Comscore are also flawed but much typically provide more accurate results than Alexa. Quantcast will also be a player as more sites signup to be "Quantified." I can only guess that sometime in the near future Google Analytics will offer a way to share your metrics. Once this happens we may see an Alexa replacement that "may" serve some value.