Editing Alexa Internet

{{Short description|American web traffic analysis company (1996–2022)}}{{For|Amazon's virtual assistant|Amazon Alexa}}

{{Use mdy dates|date=February 2014}}
{{Infobox dot-com company
| name = Alexa Internet, Inc.
| logo = Alexa Internet logo.svg
| screenshot = Screenshots of Alexa internet.PNG
| screenshot_size = 220
| caption = Alexa home page as of May 1, 2022
| location = [[San Francisco]], California, United States
| president = Andrew Ramm<ref name="Management">{{cite web| url=https://www.alexa.com/about/management| title=Management| publisher=Alexa Internet| access-date=December 24, 2014| archive-date=September 12, 2019| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190912214139/https://www.alexa.com/about/management| url-status=dead}}</ref>
| industry = [[Web traffic]]
| products = Alexa [[Web search engine|Web Search]] (discontinued 2008)<br />Alexa [[toolbar]]
| owner = [[Amazon (company)|Amazon]]
| url = {{web archive|url=http://web.archive.org/web/20080309204319/http://www.alexa.com/|title=alexa.com}}
| registration = Optional
| language = English
| company_type = 
| launch_date = {{start date and age|1996|4|1}}<ref name="about"/>
| creators = [[Brewster Kahle]], [[Bruce Gilliat]]
| key_people = Andrew Ramm (president and GM)<br />Dave Sherfese (vice president)<ref name="Management"/>
| website_type = Web traffic and ranking
| current_status = Discontinued (as of {{end date and age|2022|5|1}})
}}

'''Alexa Internet, Inc.''' was a [[web traffic]] analysis company based in [[San Francisco]], California. It was founded as an independent company by [[Brewster Kahle]] and [[Bruce Gilliat]] in 1996. Alexa provided web traffic data, global rankings, and other information on over 30 million websites.<ref name="about"/> It was acquired by [[Amazon (company)|Amazon]] in 1999 for $250 million in stock.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Hardy |first1=Quentin |title=The Big Deal: Brewster Kahle |url=https://www.forbes.com/2009/11/25/alexa-amazon-entrepreneur-intelligent-technology-kahle-big.html |access-date=7 February 2024 |website=Forbes |language=en}}</ref> Amazon discontinued the Alexa Internet service on May 1, 2022.<ref name="end news">{{cite news |date=2021-12-09 |title=Amazon closing down Alexa, the popular web traffic ranking site |url=https://www.thedailystar.net/tech-startup/news/amazon-closing-down-alexa-the-popular-web-traffic-ranking-site-2913401 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211209065657/https://www.thedailystar.net/tech-startup/news/amazon-closing-down-alexa-the-popular-web-traffic-ranking-site-2913401 |archive-date=December 9, 2021 |access-date=Dec 9, 2021 |work=The Daily Star |language=en}}</ref><ref name="end of service announcement">{{cite web |title=We will be retiring Alexa.com on May 1, 2022 |url=https://support.alexa.com/hc/en-us/articles/4410503838999 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220102200605/https://support.alexa.com/hc/en-us/articles/4410503838999 |archive-date=January 2, 2022 |access-date=Dec 9, 2021}}</ref>

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.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Alexa - Alexa Internet - About Us |url=https://www.alexa.com/about |url-status=unfit |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220501091553/https://www.alexa.com/about |archive-date=2022-05-01 |access-date=2022-07-17 |website=www.alexa.com}}</ref>&nbsp;As of 2020, its website was visited by over 400 million people every month.{{citation needed|date=September 2022}}

== Operations and history ==

=== 1996–1999 ===
Alexa Internet was founded in April 1996 by [[Brewster Kahle]] and [[Bruce Gilliat]].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.loc.gov/today/pr/1998/98-167.html|title=ALEXA Internet Donates Archive of the World Wide Web To Library of Congress|date=October 13, 1998|publisher=Alexa press release|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091013152257/http://www.loc.gov/today/pr/1998/98-167.html|archive-date=October 13, 2009|url-status=dead|access-date=October 9, 2009}}</ref> The company's name was chosen in homage to the [[Library of Alexandria]] in [[Ptolemaic dynasty|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.<ref name="gift2">{{cite web|url=http://newsbreaks.infotoday.com/nbreader.asp?ArticleID=17893|title=A "Gift of the Web" for the Library of Congress from Alexa Internet|date=October 19, 1998|access-date=June 27, 2017|archive-date=October 6, 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141006151308/http://newsbreaks.infotoday.com/nbreader.asp?ArticleID=17893|url-status=live}}</ref> 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.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.tbtf.com/archive/1997-07-28.html|title=Alexa Internet opens the doors|author=Keith Dawson|date=July 28, 1997|access-date=October 9, 2009|archive-date=April 20, 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130420230919/http://tbtf.com/archive/1997-07-28.html|url-status=live}}</ref>

Alexa's operations grew to include the archiving of web pages as they are [[Web crawler|"crawled"]] and examined by an automated computer program (nicknamed a "bot" or "web crawler").<ref>{{Citation |last=Internet Archive |title=The Wayback Machine's First Crawl 1996 |date=2021-08-06 |url=http://archive.org/details/wayback-machine-1996 |access-date=2023-04-18}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Bryant |first=Michael |date=2021-04-22 |title=What is the Wayback Machine and Why is it Useful? |url=https://www.groovypost.com/explaier/what-is-the-wayback-machine-and-why-is-it-useful/ |access-date=2023-04-18 |website=groovyPost |language=en-US}}</ref> This database served as the basis for the creation of the [[Internet Archive]], accessible through the [[Wayback Machine]].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://archive.org/about/faqs.php|title=Internet Archive FAQs|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091021003552/https://archive.org/about/faqs.php|archive-date=October 21, 2009|url-status=live|access-date=October 9, 2009}}</ref> In 1998, the company donated a copy of the archive, two [[terabyte]]s in size, to the [[Library of Congress]].<ref name="gift2" /> Alexa continued to supply the [[Internet Archive]] with web crawls. In 1999, as the company moved away from its original vision of providing an "intelligent" [[search engine]], Alexa was acquired by Amazon.com for approximately US$250 million in Amazon [[Share capital|stock]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://sanfrancisco.bizjournals.com/sanfrancisco/stories/1999/05/24/newscolumn4.html|title=E-commerce loves Street: Critical Path plans encore|author=Adam Feuerstein|date=May 21, 1999|work=[[San Francisco Business Times]]|access-date=November 5, 2013|archive-date=June 30, 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150630074336/http://sanfrancisco.bizjournals.com/sanfrancisco/stories/1999/05/24/newscolumn4.html|url-status=live}}</ref>

=== 2000–2009 ===
Alexa began a partnership with [[Google]] in early 2002 and with the web directory [[DMOZ]] in January 2003.<ref name="about">{{cite web |title=About Alexa Internet |url=https://www.alexa.com/company |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091007102542/https://www.alexa.com/company |archive-date=October 7, 2009 |access-date=October 9, 2009}}</ref> In December 2005, Alexa opened its extensive [[Search engine indexing|search index]] and [[Web crawler|Web-crawling]] facilities to third-party programs through a comprehensive set of [[Web service]]s and [[Application programming interface|APIs]]. These could be used, for instance, to construct [[vertical search]] engines that could run on Alexa's servers or elsewhere. In May 2006, Google was replaced by [[Bing (search engine)#Windows Live Search|Windows Live Search]] as a provider of search results.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.infoworld.com/t/data-management/amazon-dumps-google-windows-live-156|title=Amazon dumps Google for Windows Live|author=Elizabeth Montalbano|date=May 1, 2006|publisher=Infoworld|access-date=November 6, 2011|archive-date=February 17, 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130217025330/http://www.infoworld.com/t/data-management/amazon-dumps-google-windows-live-156|url-status=live}}</ref> In December 2006, Amazon released Alexa Image Search. Built in-house, it was the first major application built on the company's Web platform. In May 2007, Alexa changed their API to limit comparisons to three websites, reduce the size of embedded graphs in [[Adobe Flash|Flash]], and add mandatory embedded BritePic advertisements.

In April 2007, the company filed a lawsuit, ''Alexa v. Hornbaker,'' to stop [[trademark infringement]] by the Statsaholic service.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://i.i.com.com/cnwk.1d/i/z/200701/show_case_doc-1.pdf|title=Northern California District Federal court Case number&nbsp;— C 07-01715 RS|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070422113607/http://i.i.com.com/cnwk.1d/i/z/200701/show_case_doc-1.pdf|archive-date=April 22, 2007|url-status=dead|access-date=April 19, 2007}}</ref> 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.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.zdnet.com/article/amazon-sues-alexaholic-everyone-loses/|title=Amazon sues Alexaholic...everyone loses!|author=Alan Graham|date=April 18, 2007|publisher=ZDnet|access-date=March 14, 2016|archive-date=August 5, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200805092117/https://www.zdnet.com/article/amazon-sues-alexaholic-everyone-loses/|url-status=live}}</ref> Hornbaker had removed the term ''Alexa'' from his service name on March 19, 2007.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://mashable.com/2007/04/19/amazon-sues-alexaholic...web-as-platform-is-bullsht/|title=Amazon sues Statsaholifghkhc...Web as Platform is Bullsh*t|author=Pete Cashmore|date=April 19, 2007|publisher=Mashable|access-date=February 14, 2013|archive-date=March 22, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200322214205/https://mashable.com/2007/04/19/amazon-sues-alexaholic...web-as-platform-is-bullsht/|url-status=live}}</ref> 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.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.techflash.com/Report_Amazon_pullling_plug_on_Alexa_Web_Search35187569.html|title=Amazon pulling plug on Alexa Web Search|author=John Cook|date=November 27, 2008|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081203233157/http://www.techflash.com/Report_Amazon_pullling_plug_on_Alexa_Web_Search35187569.html|archive-date=December 3, 2008|url-status=live|access-date=November 27, 2008}}</ref> 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, [[bounce rate]] (the rate of users who come to and then leave a webpage), and user time on the [[website]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://awis.blogspot.com/2009/03/pardon-our-dust.html|title=Pardon our dust|author=Geoffrey Mack|date=March 31, 2009|publisher=Alexa Internet|access-date=November 6, 2011|archive-date=April 4, 2009|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090404132442/http://awis.blogspot.com/2009/03/pardon-our-dust.html|url-status=live}}</ref> In the following weeks, Alexa added more features, including visitor demographics, [[clickstream]], and web search traffic statistics.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://awis.blogspot.com/2009/04/more-new-alexa-features-demographics.html|title=More New Alexa Features: Demographics, Clickstream, Search Traffic|author=Geoffrey Mack|date=April 14, 2009|access-date=October 9, 2009|archive-date=April 17, 2009|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090417044759/http://awis.blogspot.com/2009/04/more-new-alexa-features-demographics.html|url-status=live}}</ref>

=== 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.<ref>{{Cite news |last1=Etherington |first1=Darrell |date=November 6, 2014 |title=Amazon Echo Is A $199 Connected Speaker Packing An Always-On Siri-Style Assistant |work=[[TechCrunch]] |url=https://techcrunch.com/2014/11/06/amazon-echo/ |access-date=September 2, 2016}}</ref>

=== End of service ===
On December 8, 2021, Amazon announced the cessation of its website ranking and competitive analysis service, which had 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 specified the total cessation of the service as of May 1, 2022. Existing subscriptions were available until May 1, 2022, UTC, after which everything on the site was removed and replaced with an "End of Service Notice".{{R|end news}}{{R|end of service announcement}}<ref>{{Cite web |date=2022-05-02 |title=End of Service Notice |url=https://www.alexa.com/ |archive-url=https://archive.today/20220502141953/https://www.alexa.com/ |url-status=dead |archive-date=2022-05-02 |access-date=2022-05-04 |website=archive.ph}}</ref>

The alexa.com domain is now a landing page for [[Amazon Alexa]] products.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Amazon Alexa |url=https://alexa.com/ |access-date=2024-11-12 |website=alexa.com}}</ref>

== Alexa Traffic Rank ==
A key [[Metric (unit)|metric]] published from Alexa Internet [[analytics]] was the Alexa Traffic Rank, also simply known as Alexa Rank. It was also referred to as ''Global Rank'' by Alexa Internet and was designed to be an estimate of a website's popularity. {{As of|May 2018}}, Alexa Internet's tooltip for Global Rank said the rank is calculated from a combination of daily visitors and page views on a website over a three-month period.<ref name="siteinfoWikipedia2">{{cite web|url=https://www.alexa.com/siteinfo/wikipedia.org|title=wikipedia.org Traffic Statistics|publisher=Alexa Internet|id=Global Rank|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180509193547/https://www.alexa.com/siteinfo/wikipedia.org|archive-date=9 May 2018|url-status=live|access-date=10 May 2018}}</ref>

The Alexa Traffic Rank could be used to monitor the popularity trend of a website and compare the popularity of different websites.<ref name="SaleOpt2">{{cite web|url=https://www.salesoptimize.com/improve-your-alexa-ranking/|title=How & Why to Improve Your Alexa Ranking|last=Fulham|first=Liz|date=10 May 2018|publisher=Sales@Optimize|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171116150113/https://www.salesoptimize.com/improve-your-alexa-ranking/|archive-date=16 November 2017|url-status=live}}</ref>

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.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.alexa.com/about|title=Alexa - Alexa Internet - About Us|publisher=www.alexa.com|access-date=March 30, 2020|archive-date=October 26, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201026074526/https://www.alexa.com/about|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://blog.alexa.com/alexa-panel-increase/|title=Alexa Increases its Global Traffic Panel|first=Jennifer|last=Yesbeck|date=October 1, 2014|website=Alexa Blog|access-date=July 4, 2020|archive-date=July 6, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200706042009/https://blog.alexa.com/alexa-panel-increase/|url-status=dead}}</ref>

== 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.<ref>{{Cite web|title=The Alexa Browser Extension|url=https://www.alexa.com/toolbar|access-date=2020-09-18|website=www.alexa.com|archive-date=January 3, 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220103051925/https://www.alexa.com/toolbar|url-status=dead}}</ref> 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 [[browser toolbar]] for the [[Internet Explorer]], [[Firefox]] and [[Google Chrome]] web browsers.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.alexa.com/company/technology|title=Technology: How and Why We Crawl the Web|publisher=Alexa|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140402163843/https://www.alexa.com/company/technology|archive-date=April 2, 2014|access-date=November 6, 2011}}</ref><ref name="davis2">{{cite book|title=Google Advertising Tools: Cashing in with AdSense, Adwords, and the Google APIs|author=Harold Davis|publisher=O'Reilly Media|year=2006|isbn=978-0-596-10108-4|page=[https://archive.org/details/googleadvertisin00davi/page/12 12]|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/googleadvertisin00davi/page/12}}</ref> The Alexa Toolbar included a [[popup blocker]] (which stops unwanted ads), a search box, links to [[Amazon.com]] and the Alexa homepage, and the Alexa ranking of the website that the user is visiting. It also allowed the user to rate the website and view links to external, relevant websites. In early 2005, Alexa stated that there had been 10 million downloads of the toolbar, though the company did not provide statistics about active usage. Originally, web pages were only ranked amongst users who had the Alexa Toolbar installed, and could be biased if a specific audience subgroup was reluctant to take part in the rankings. This caused some controversies over how representative Alexa's user base was of typical Internet behavior,<ref>{{cite book|title=Complete Web Monitoring: Watching Your Visitors, Performance, Communities, and Competitors |url=https://archive.org/details/completewebmonit00crol_895|url-access=limited|author1=Alistair Croll|author2=Seán Power|publisher=O'Reilly Media|year=2009|isbn=978-0-596-15513-1|page=[https://archive.org/details/completewebmonit00crol_895/page/n65 38]}}</ref> especially for less-visited sites.<ref name="davis2" /> In 2007, [[Michael Arrington]] provided examples of Alexa rankings known to contradict data from the [[comScore]] [[web analytics]] service, including ranking [[YouTube]] ahead of Google.<ref>Michael Arrington. [https://www.techcrunch.com/2007/11/25/alexas-make-believe-internet "Alexa's Make Believe Internet"]; [https://www.techcrunch.com/2007/08/13/alexa-says-youtube-is-now-bigger-than-google-theyre-wrong/ "Alexa Says YouTube Is Now Bigger Than Google. Alexa Is Useless"]. TechCrunch. 2007. Retrieved June 21, 2013.</ref> In 2021 John Mueller from Google confirmed again that Google does not use Amazon Alexa Rank.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Murari |first=Krishna |title=Google Do Not Use Domain Authority And Alexa Rank {{!}} The Seo Today |url=https://www.theseotoday.com/2021/10/domain-authority-and-alexa-rank.html |access-date=2022-07-13 |language=en}}</ref>

=====Search Status=====
Until 2007, a [[Third-party developer|third-party]]-supplied [[Add-on (Mozilla)#Plug-ins|Mozilla plug-in]] called Search Status for the [[Firefox]] browser<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.quirk.biz/searchstatus/ |title=SearchStatus: A Search Extension for Firefox and SeaMonkey|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130627071242/http://www.quirk.biz/searchstatus/ |archive-date=27 June 2013 |url-status=dead}}</ref> served as the only option for Firefox users after Amazon abandoned its [[A9.com|A9]] toolbar.<ref name="a92">[http://toolbar.a9.com/ Home] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080608183909/http://toolbar.a9.com/ |date=June 8, 2008 }}. A9.com. Retrieved June 24, 2013.</ref> On July 16, 2007, Alexa released an official toolbar for Firefox called Sparky.<ref name="Sparky2">[http://awis.blogspot.com/2007/07/sparky-add-on-for-firefox-released.html "Sparky Add-on for Firefox Released Today"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070729134152/http://awis.blogspot.com/2007/07/sparky-add-on-for-firefox-released.html |date=July 29, 2007 }}. Alexa Blog. July 16, 2007. Retrieved June 24, 2013.</ref> On 16 April 2008, many users reported drastic shifts in their Alexa rankings. Alexa confirmed this later in the day with an announcement that they had released an updated ranking system, claiming that they would now take into account more sources of data "beyond Alexa Toolbar users".<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.alexa.com/site/company/announcement|title=Alexa Announcement|publisher=Alexa|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080424144640/https://www.alexa.com/site/company/announcement|archive-date=April 24, 2008|url-status=live|access-date=September 22, 2012}}</ref><ref>[https://techcrunch.com/2008/04/16/alexa-overhauls-ranking-system "Alexa Overhauls Ranking System"]. TechCrunch. April 16, 2008. Retrieved December 1, 2012.</ref>

=== 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.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.alexa.com/pro/digital_marketer|title=Alexa Pro for Digital Marketers|publisher=Alexa|access-date=January 18, 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141230145536/http://www.alexa.com/pro/digital_marketer|archive-date=December 30, 2014}}</ref> 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.

==See also==
{{Portal|Internet}}
* {{annotated link|Google Analytics}}
* [[List of most visited websites]]
* [[List of search engines]]
* [[List of web directories]]
* [[Similarweb]]

==References==
{{reflist|30em}}

== External links ==
* {{web archive|url=http://web.archive.org/web/20080309204319/http://www.alexa.com/|title=Official website}}
{{Wikidata property|P1661}}
{{Commons category}}

{{Amazon}}
{{Authority control}}

[[Category:Digital marketing companies of the United States]]
[[Category:Web analytics]]
[[Category:Companies based in San Francisco]]
[[Category:Defunct online companies of the United States]]
[[Category:Marketing companies established in 1996]]
[[Category:Internet properties established in 1996]]
[[Category:Internet properties disestablished in 2022]]
[[Category:Products and services discontinued in 2022]]
[[Category:Internet search engines]]
[[Category:Telecommunications companies established in 1996]]
[[Category:1996 establishments in California]]
[[Category:2022 disestablishments in California]]
[[Category:Technology companies based in the San Francisco Bay Area]]
[[Category:Amazon (company) acquisitions]]
[[Category:1999 mergers and acquisitions]]