Alexa

[G Smith]

Hi,

I'm just curious about the Alexa search toolbar. Sites are rated by this service by how many users of their toolbar visit a particular site.

Is the toolbar safe? Does it phone home? How accurate our their web stie position claims. Seems to me that sites could have great traffic but not rank high with this service.

Personally I like the Google Bar.

Input would be appreciated.

[asklepios]

ALEXA'S TOOLBAR SERVICE COLLECTS AND STORES INFORMATION ABOUT THE WEB PAGES YOU VIEW, THE DATA YOU ENTER IN ONLINE FORMS AND SEARCH FIELDS, AND, WITH VERSIONS 5.0 AND HIGHER, THE PRODUCTS YOU PURCHASE ONLINE WHILE USING THE TOOLBAR SERVICE. ALTHOUGH ALEXA DOES NOT ATTEMPT TO ANALYZE WEB USAGE DATA TO DETERMINE THE IDENTITY OF ANY ALEXA USER, SOME INFORMATION COLLECTED BY THE TOOLBAR SERVICE IS PERSONALLY IDENTIFIABLE. ALEXA AGGREGATES AND ANALYZES THE INFORMATION IT COLLECTS TO IMPROVE ITS SERVICE AND TO PREPARE REPORTS ABOUT AGGREGATE WEB USAGE AND SHOPPING HABITS.

IN ADDITION, WHEN YOU PERFORM SEARCHES USING THE SEARCH FUNCTION AVAILABLE ON ALEXA'S TOOLBAR SERVICE SOFTWARE VERSION 6.5 AND HIGHER OR ON THE ALEXA WEBSITE, YOU OFTEN WILL BE TAKEN TO A WEBSITE DETAIL PAGE AT AMAZON.COM. IF YOU HAVE AN ACCOUNT ON AMAZON.COM AND AN AMAZON.COM COOKIE ENABLED, YOUR SEARCH RESULTS WILL BE TRANSMITTED TO AND LOGGED BY AMAZON.COM AND MAY BE CORRELATED BY AMAZON.COM WITH ANY PERSONALLY IDENTIFIABLE INFORMATION YOU MAY HAVE PREVIOUSLY PROVIDED TO AMAZON.COM.

http://pages.alexa.com/help/privacy.html?p=TBStartpage_W_t_40_B1

so it does phone home. that much is clear.
about being safe...wat do you mean by being safe? :?:
btw google toolbar phones home too, if you have the advanced features enabled ofcourse

http://toolbar.google.com/privacy.html

[G Smith]

Thanks Asklepios,

I was trying to find that same info on the Alexa site and was having trouble.

I run a small non profit web site and am being held over the firepit cause our Alexa ratings are low. We have great google rankings though. I guess our viewers are just smarter than the average joe!

I use google's toolbar but only the basic stuff. At least they give you a choice and warn you before you set up any advanced features.

[asklepios]

[G Smith]

Yeah,

I feel the same way. I told the big wigs to cool it. I'm certainly not about to ask our web site viewers to install something that could transmit personal information. Where's the trust in that?