Alexa Is Skewed

Friday, March 9, 2007

I’ve often wondered how Alexa manages to get its data. Their stats never seem to synch with mine. It turns out there’s a fly in the ointment over there.

{ 1 comment… read it below or add one }

1 josh 03.11.07 at 6:14 pm

Alexa compiles its data from the people that download and use the Alexa tool bar. That becomes their “sample.” Much like the Nielsen TV ratings, this method of collecting data is arbitrary and weak. I have been thinking the same thing about Alexa for quite a while. It’s especially frustrating when you are looking at the raw log files from Apache. Those logs don’t lie.

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