The Wardman Wire

Alexa rankings have always been rank, and are only really any use in in-house blogging political knockabout - and then only as a Parlour Game. The game has changed more than slightly.

Way back when I said:

The toolbar is usually installed by computer and IT people - so the figures basically tell you how popular your website is among Geeks wearing Y-Fronts. For me on this blog, this does not help - as political geeks do not necessarily wear Y-Fronts (on MP’s allowances they are likely to be handmade silk boxers). (*)

This is still (in my opinion) so, but quite a bit less so - as they are using other data sources as well as the Alexa toolbar. The toolbar was typically used by webmasters to push their own websites up the rankings and was the main reason why technology sites were over-represented. The theory is that multiple sources even out the Geek-bias.

The effect has been to de-emphasise Technology sites relative to others. A quick run round a few UK political blogs doesn’t reveal any changes. For the impact on technology sites here are a couple of articles with coverage:

• Alexa announcement.
• A report from Problogger.
• Daily Blog Tips: And there goes our Alexa rank.

For a couple of actual figures (from Amit Updates).

• Problogger : (blog about blogging) Was 3xxx Rank : Now 12917 Rank
• DigitalPoint : (Technology forums) Was 3xxRank : Now 938 Rank
• Global Internet Index : Was 66000 Rank : Now 45323 Rank

Wrapping Up

Does it make much difference?

To your average political blogger? No.

To your average political blogger being assessed by someone else who takes Alexa seriously? Possibly - especially if it is affecting what they are paying you for your adverts.