Vinny Lingham's Blog - Latest Comments in Alexa : Yahoo vs. Google

Re: Alexa : Yahoo vs. Google

Johan Bosini — Fri, 20 Jan 2006 22:13:00 -0000

Hi there
Firstly, don't get me wrong - I love alexa and use them daily for all sorts of things. Alexa does not pull stats from all internet users - it monitors behavior of users that have downloaded its toolbar only.

The stats from Alexa come from a self-selected group of Alexa toolbar users on MS IE/Windows which most certainly under-represents some segments of the general Internet population. Mozilla and Mac users are excluded. Also, generally technically minded people use Alexa - there are millions of people out there who do not know about them.

Also - most AOL users have Alexa installed as a default... so it is immediately USA skewed. The other major users are webmasters - again these people are not your average internet user. Many internet marketers and online marketing companies use alexa - but not your average Joe.

Having said all this I think it is a great tool to see how a sites usage is changing, but these rankings/stats should not be applied to the internet population as a whole because that is not what they measure.

In short Alexa excludes too many demographics. For one designers use apple computers - and thus Alexa excludes them, most technical administrators use linux, and so Alexa excludes them too. Also - many anti spyware programs delete Alexa, as it is picked up in virus scans. It can only generate stats for those users that have the toolbar installed, and who has it, and where they live on the globe is questionable.

Alexa is a great tool - but know its limitations.

Johan Bosini

Re: Alexa : Yahoo vs. Google

Johan Bosini — Fri, 20 Jan 2006 20:53:00 -0000

Re: Alexa : Yahoo vs. Google

searchquant — Wed, 11 Jan 2006 00:48:00 -0000

Johan,

To what extent and for what reasons do you think Alexa's stats are not accurate?

Re: Alexa : Yahoo vs. Google

Johan Bosini — Tue, 10 Jan 2006 16:15:00 -0000

Alexa is a very nice tool - however I would not trust its stats at all - as they are not very accurate.