Take a second to look at your blog's browser stats. If your blog is like most others, a good share, if not the majority, of your users are getting to your blog with Firefox as their browser. It's early for the Garden, and I definitely skew the results, but so far half of our visitors are using Firefox.And NONE of them are being counted by Alexa.
Alexa only counts users that have the Alexa Toolbar installed, which many people don't realize. Now bloggers ARE more likely to use the toolbar than the average user, but at the same time, they are also more likely to use Firefox.
And currently Alexa's toolbar is NOT available for Firefox, only IE. But what would happen if Alexa announced today that its toolbar was available for Firefox? Can you imagine how quickly this toolbar would be adopted by bloggers? Traffic patterns for blogs as a whole, according to Alexa, would begin to surge almost immediately.
MSM is already beginning to notice the increasing traffic patterns of blogs, but the kicker is, those patterns are calculated with a toolbar that only supports IE, which is used on the whole more by surfers to MSM sites, not blogs. If the advantage flipped, and if Alexa embraced Firefox, then suddenly the advantage swings to blogs in the traffic-wars.
The potential impact to the ultimate future of blogs would be huge if Alexa ever adds Firefox, the blogger's browser of choice. We'll see what happens.
2 comments:
Alexa is the only traffic counter that will give a site an overall ranking, based on the number of visitors with the Alexa toolbar.
All other search engines etc. will give you a ranking based on keywords, but shy away from an overall ranking. (like Technorati gives for blogs, for instance)
That said, the numbers are obviously grossly inaccurate, as you pointed out, Mack. I may be savvy to this info on Alexa's ranking system, but I have never actually laid mine own eyes on an Alexa toolbar, in all my years on the net. Likely, it's even less effective than the hilariously out-of-date and inaccurate Nielsen ratings system for t.v.
I mean, who uses Internet Explorer anymore anyway? Sheesh!
IMO, Alexa won't cause the explosion that you predict if it becomes firefox compatible, but instead it will just provide an off-the-mark ranking system that might matter to the great unwashed, but not to netophiles and the "bloggerati" like you and I.
Sorry Alexa, but I'm sticking with Google.
"IMO, Alexa won't cause the explosion that you predict if it becomes firefox compatible, but instead it will just provide an off-the-mark ranking system that might matter to the great unwashed, but not to netophiles and the "bloggerati" like you and I."
Ah but don't forget the ever-present blego. If Alexa's toolbar was made available for Firefox, the traffic rankings would shoot up for most blogs, and then you'd have Hugh on Gaping Void crowing about how GP was passing CBS.com, or whatever MSM site, in traffic. Many bloggers would be doing the same thing. The non-bloggers won't care, till they see the bloggers making such a big deal about their traffic suddenly spanking the 'old-school' sites.
It's a flawed system, and Technorati is even worse. Don't even get me started.
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