RE: Killing caches (was RE: Pay-Per-Click Question)

From: Justin W. Hitt <Justin.Hitt_at_hittpansophism.com>
Date: Wed 30 May 2001 11:41:27 -0500

ALEX CHUDNOVSKY <alexc_at_jungle.com> WROTE:

> I consider Alexa's stats being very very questionable.
> I have seen MAJOR differences in their numbers (derived

I used to think that to, but I had a little free time on
my hand and a bit of statistics in my mind. I backed
out their numbers on a few sites, cross referenced it
with news releases and other statements (other peoples
weblogs) and concluded: Alexas stats are accurate as a
comparison between two sites if you are only looking at
how they relate to the site on the Internet that gets
the most traffic.

Remember Alexa looks at a 6 month traffic window. I
found many universities and websites post their logs,
plus a few cache arrays provide analysis information.
It took 14 days for my computer to crunch the logs, and
a few more days to check the math.

I also noticed that one website (or domain) could have
several rankings depending on the URL which leads me to
believe Alexa is segmenting the Internet into content
components -- something useful to advertising. It also
seems to be creating contextual relationships between
sites by watching the users, also good for advertising.

Browser side measurements of traffic are always going to
be better than anything you can measure on your server.
It is technically possible to mirror or image entire
websites at a local corporate gateway, or mobile gateway,
or cache array, or local browser, and thousands of other
devices available.

As edge routing becomes more affordable your local log
files become more useless. According to the gateway I
use here in the office, it caches 44% of all traffic and
52% of all DNS entries, my network provider routes most
of my traffic through a cache at their end as well. Most
content is static.

What does this have to do with marketing? Besides the
items already mentioned, with their data you could
advertise to a cluster of sites which a specific
demographic visits using a larger ad network or a hybrid
mix of advertisements. Alexa is also a good measure of
traffic increases (over a 6 month period) if you are only
comparing it with where you are in relation to the highest
trafficked site, however, it must be considered with any
other information you can gather -- ultimately everything
is measured by sales.

Respectfully submitted,

Justin
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Received on Wed May 30 2001 - 11:41:27 CDT