Alexa error triggers crisis of confidence - Valleywag Comments

Alexa error triggers crisis of confidence

frank94402 — Tue, 27 Mar 2007 22:51:34 PDT

I think you got it all wrong: you compared Alexa Reach (which represents the number of unique visitors per day) with Techcrunch's pageview number. Not an apple-to-apple comparison!

If you compare pageviews from Alexa and pageviews from techcrunch's sitemeter pageviews, they match quite well.

I put together some graphs to show that on my blog:
http://lifeisaventure.wordpress.com/2007/03/27/how-to-use-...

frank94402

Alexa error triggers crisis of confidence

webconnoisseur — Mon, 26 Mar 2007 20:58:42 PDT

I'm glad more and more people are questioning Alexa data. Take a look at my recent research comparing real data from a mainstream site with a online marketing site:

http://www.webconnoisseur.com/blog/uncategorized/please-st...

Alexa's data is even further off than most people have noticed.

webconnoisseur

Alexa error triggers crisis of confidence

Trackback — Fri, 23 Mar 2007 21:10:18 PDT

Earlier in the week I corrected Lee Gomes piece that said Netscape moving to a new format cause the traffic to crash. He based his numbers on "share" numbers from HitWise from what I understand.

Trackback

Alexa error triggers crisis of confidence

alexrudloff — Wed, 21 Mar 2007 14:07:38 PDT

It's not just true of techcrunch, take a look around at a few other web properties.

I can only speak for ourselves, but Emurse.com is in the midst of our largest month since July. Looking at our sad, sad alexa growth would make you think we were comatose. ;)

We aren't a big enough site to garner accurate compete numbers, but at least the trend is closer to being right.

alexrudloff

Alexa error triggers crisis of confidence

microchip911 — Wed, 21 Mar 2007 12:31:15 PDT

Ian,

You're right.

Both Compete.com and Quantcast say Time.com is much more heavily trafficked than TechCrunch. Alexa is the only one pointing the other way.

2 out of 3.. Yet another great case for triangulating data.

http://www.attentionmeter.com/?d1=www.time.com&d2=techcrun...

microchip911

Alexa error triggers crisis of confidence

Ian Bell — Wed, 21 Mar 2007 09:49:06 PDT

I want to point out that TechCrunch has an Alexa score under 550 and only does 3-4mm pageviews per month. In comparison, Time.com has an Alexa rank of 1027: http://www.alexa.com/search?q=time.com

Which do you think get's more traffic? Now you know why Alexa is so handicapped, it's getting gamed to hell...

Ian Bell

Alexa error triggers crisis of confidence

Nick Denton — Wed, 21 Mar 2007 06:25:57 PDT

@ron_burgundy: Yes, Ron, of course, if, for instance, Techcrunch was becoming less popular, but better at maximizing pageviews per visit. But there's been no change to the Techcrunch design which would explain such divergence. Or do you have some other explanation? What's more, Alexa also estimates pageviews, and its take on that measure is equally misleading.

Nick Denton

Alexa error triggers crisis of confidence

ron_burgundy — Tue, 20 Mar 2007 21:59:39 PDT

Uhmm...it's perfectly possible for reach to go down while page views go up. Duh.

ron_burgundy

Alexa error triggers crisis of confidence

microchip911 — Tue, 20 Mar 2007 21:49:06 PDT

One should always check multiple sources of data (Compete, etc) before reaching such a sweeping conclusion. Peter should know better.

For a more complete picture check www.attentionmeter.com

microchip911

Alexa error triggers crisis of confidence

toughie — Tue, 20 Mar 2007 20:55:22 PDT

I suggest using Compete.com

toughie

Alexa error triggers crisis of confidence

Trackback — Tue, 20 Mar 2007 13:10:02 PDT

Peter Rip, one of the smarter guys in silicon valley, wrote a not-bad post about web 2.0. But he used a well noted slump in Alexa ratings to back up his point, dragging TechCrunch and GigaOm and Technorati into the fight by saying these sites have peaked in traffic and are all now on the decline.

Trackback