Alexa Internet
Web Search (discontinued 2008) Alexa toolbar | |
URL | alexa |
---|---|
Registration | Optional |
Launched | April 1, 1996[2] |
Current status | Discontinued (as of May 1, 2022 | )
Alexa Internet, Inc. was an American web traffic analysis company based in San Francisco. It was a wholly-owned subsidiary of Amazon.
Alexa was founded as an independent company in 1996 and acquired by Amazon in 1999 for $250 million in stock.[3] Alexa provided web traffic data, global rankings, and other information on over 30 million websites.[4] Alexa estimated website traffic based on a sample of millions of Internet users using browser extensions as well as from sites that had chosen to install an Alexa script.[5] As of 2020, its website was visited by over 400 million people every month.[citation needed]
In December 2021, Amazon announced that it would be shutting down its Alexa Internet subsidiary. The service was then discontinued on May 1, 2022.[6][7]
Operations and history
1996–1999
Alexa Internet was founded in April 1996 by Brewster Kahle and Bruce Gilliat.[8] The company's name was chosen in homage to the Library of Alexandria in Ptolemaic Egypt, drawing a parallel between the largest repository of knowledge in the ancient world and the potential of the Internet to become a similar store of knowledge.[9] Alexa initially offered a toolbar that gave Internet users suggestions on where to go next based on the traffic patterns of its user community. The company also offered context for each site visited: to whom it was registered, how many pages it had, how many other sites pointed to it, and how frequently it was updated.[10]
Alexa's operations grew to include the archiving of web pages as they are
2000–2009
Alexa began a partnership with
In April 2007, the company filed a lawsuit, Alexa v. Hornbaker, to stop trademark infringement by the Statsaholic service.[17] In the lawsuit, Alexa alleged that Ron Hornbaker was stealing traffic graphs for profit and that the primary purpose of his site was to display graphs that were generated by Alexa's servers.[18] Hornbaker had removed the term Alexa from his service name on March 19, 2007.[19] On November 27, 2008, Amazon announced that Alexa Web Search was no longer accepting new customers and that the service would be deprecated or discontinued for existing customers on January 26, 2009.[20] Thereafter, Alexa became a purely analytics-focused company.
On March 31, 2009, Alexa revealed a major website redesign. The redesigned site provided new web traffic metrics, including average page views per individual user,
2010–2020
During this period, Alexa's algorithm had been evolving along with it. Statistics projection and the use of their technology associated with a large network of certificated websites allowed them to keep ahead of the website traffic metrics around the world. Because of this, many large sites were using it as the main reference for popularity on the internet.
On November 6, 2014, Amazon announced Amazon Alexa, their virtual assistant. Amazon already had trademarks for Alexa due to their ownership of Alexa Internet, Inc.[23]
End of service
On Wednesday, December 8, 2021, Amazon announced the cessation of its website ranking and competitive analysis service, which has been available to the public for more than 25 years. From that day on, it was no longer possible to create accounts or buy subscriptions on the service. The statement first published on its website specifies the total cessation of the service as of May 1, 2022. Existing subscriptions would be available until May 1, 2022, UTC, after which everything on the site would be removed and replaced with an "End of Service Notice".[6][7][24]
Alexa Traffic Rank
A key
The Alexa Traffic Rank could be used to monitor the popularity trend of a website and compare the popularity of different websites.[26]
The traffic rank used to be determined from data recollected from users that had the Alexa toolbar installed on their browser. As of 2020, Alexa did not use a toolbar; instead, it used data from users that had installed any of a number of browser extensions and from websites that had the Alexa script installed on their webpages.[27][28]
Tracking
Browser extensions
Alexa replaced their toolbar with browser extensions. These extensions were made available for Google Chrome and Firefox browsers. The Alexa browser extension displayed the Alexa Traffic Rank for websites, showed related websites, provided search analytics, and quickly allowed users to view the Internet Archive through the Wayback Machine.[29] They were last updated in May 2020, two years prior to the service's closure.
Toolbar
Alexa used to rank sites based primarily on tracking a sample set of Internet traffic—users of its
Search Status
Until 2007, a
Certified statistics
Using the Alexa Pro service, website owners could sign up for "certified statistics", which allowed Alexa more access to a website's traffic data.[40] Site owners input JavaScript code on each page of their website that, if permitted by the user's security and privacy settings, ran and sent traffic data to Alexa, allowing Alexa to display—or not display, depending on the owner's preference—more accurate statistics such as total page views and unique page views.
Privacy assessments
Alexa last detailed their privacy notice in July 2020 as part of their Website Terms of Use and End User License Agreement.[41]
See also
- Google Analytics – Web analytics service from Google
- List of most visited websites
- List of search engines
- List of web directories
- Similarweb
References
- ^ a b "Management". Alexa Internet. Archived from the original on September 12, 2019. Retrieved December 24, 2014.
- ^ "About Alexa Internet". Archived from the original on October 7, 2009. Retrieved October 9, 2009.
- ^ Hardy, Quentin. "The Big Deal: Brewster Kahle". Forbes. Retrieved February 7, 2024.
- ^ "About". Alexa. Archived from the original on October 7, 2009. Retrieved January 18, 2015.
- ^ "Alexa - Alexa Internet - About Us". www.alexa.com. Archived from the original on May 1, 2022. Retrieved July 17, 2022.
{{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link) - ^ a b "Amazon closing down Alexa, the popular web traffic ranking site". The Daily Star. December 9, 2021. Archived from the original on December 9, 2021. Retrieved December 9, 2021.
- ^ a b "We will be retiring Alexa.com on May 1, 2022". Archived from the original on January 2, 2022. Retrieved December 9, 2021.
- ^ "ALEXA Internet Donates Archive of the World Wide Web To Library of Congress". Alexa press release. October 13, 1998. Archived from the original on October 13, 2009. Retrieved October 9, 2009.
- ^ a b "A "Gift of the Web" for the Library of Congress from Alexa Internet". October 19, 1998. Archived from the original on October 6, 2014. Retrieved June 27, 2017.
- ^ Keith Dawson (July 28, 1997). "Alexa Internet opens the doors". Archived from the original on April 20, 2013. Retrieved October 9, 2009.
- ^ Internet Archive (August 6, 2021), The Wayback Machine's First Crawl 1996, retrieved April 18, 2023
- ^ Bryant, Michael (April 22, 2021). "What is the Wayback Machine and Why is it Useful?". groovyPost. Retrieved April 18, 2023.
- ^ "Internet Archive FAQs". Archived from the original on October 21, 2009. Retrieved October 9, 2009.
- San Francisco Business Times. Archivedfrom the original on June 30, 2015. Retrieved November 5, 2013.
- ^ "About Alexa Internet". Archived from the original on October 7, 2009. Retrieved October 9, 2009.
- ^ Elizabeth Montalbano (May 1, 2006). "Amazon dumps Google for Windows Live". Infoworld. Archived from the original on February 17, 2013. Retrieved November 6, 2011.
- ^ "Northern California District Federal court Case number — C 07-01715 RS" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on April 22, 2007. Retrieved April 19, 2007.
- ^ Alan Graham (April 18, 2007). "Amazon sues Alexaholic...everyone loses!". ZDnet. Archived from the original on August 5, 2020. Retrieved March 14, 2016.
- ^ Pete Cashmore (April 19, 2007). "Amazon sues Statsaholifghkhc...Web as Platform is Bullsh*t". Mashable. Archived from the original on March 22, 2020. Retrieved February 14, 2013.
- ^ John Cook (November 27, 2008). "Amazon pulling plug on Alexa Web Search". Archived from the original on December 3, 2008. Retrieved November 27, 2008.
- ^ Geoffrey Mack (March 31, 2009). "Pardon our dust". Alexa Internet. Archived from the original on April 4, 2009. Retrieved November 6, 2011.
- ^ Geoffrey Mack (April 14, 2009). "More New Alexa Features: Demographics, Clickstream, Search Traffic". Archived from the original on April 17, 2009. Retrieved October 9, 2009.
- ^ Etherington, Darrell (November 6, 2014). "Amazon Echo Is A $199 Connected Speaker Packing An Always-On Siri-Style Assistant". TechCrunch. Retrieved September 2, 2016.
- ^ "End of Service Notice". archive.ph. May 2, 2022. Archived from the original on May 2, 2022. Retrieved May 4, 2022.
- ^ "wikipedia.org Traffic Statistics". Alexa Internet. Global Rank. Archived from the original on May 9, 2018. Retrieved May 10, 2018.
- ^ Fulham, Liz (May 10, 2018). "How & Why to Improve Your Alexa Ranking". Sales@Optimize. Archived from the original on November 16, 2017.
- ^ "Alexa - Alexa Internet - About Us". www.alexa.com. Archived from the original on October 26, 2020. Retrieved March 30, 2020.
- ^ Yesbeck, Jennifer (October 1, 2014). "Alexa Increases its Global Traffic Panel". Alexa Blog. Archived from the original on July 6, 2020. Retrieved July 4, 2020.
- ^ "The Alexa Browser Extension". www.alexa.com. Archived from the original on January 3, 2022. Retrieved September 18, 2020.
- ^ "Technology: How and Why We Crawl the Web". Alexa. Archived from the original on April 2, 2014. Retrieved November 6, 2011.
- ^ ISBN 978-0-596-10108-4.
- ISBN 978-0-596-15513-1.
- ^ Michael Arrington. "Alexa's Make Believe Internet"; "Alexa Says YouTube Is Now Bigger Than Google. Alexa Is Useless". TechCrunch. 2007. Retrieved June 21, 2013.
- ^ Murari, Krishna. "Google Do Not Use Domain Authority And Alexa Rank | The Seo Today". Retrieved July 13, 2022.
- ^ "SearchStatus: A Search Extension for Firefox and SeaMonkey". Archived from the original on June 27, 2013.
- ^ Home Archived June 8, 2008, at the Wayback Machine. A9.com. Retrieved June 24, 2013.
- ^ "Sparky Add-on for Firefox Released Today" Archived July 29, 2007, at the Wayback Machine. Alexa Blog. July 16, 2007. Retrieved June 24, 2013.
- ^ "Alexa Announcement". Alexa. Archived from the original on April 24, 2008. Retrieved September 22, 2012.
- ^ "Alexa Overhauls Ranking System". TechCrunch. April 16, 2008. Retrieved December 1, 2012.
- ^ "Alexa Pro for Digital Marketers". Alexa. Archived from the original on December 30, 2014. Retrieved January 18, 2015.
- ^ "Alexa – Alexa Internet – Privacy Notice". alexa.com. Archived from the original on September 18, 2020. Retrieved September 18, 2020.
External links
- Alexa rank (P1661) (see uses)