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Comparison of Web Analytics sites

January 2, 2008 · Posted in Tech tidbit, comparison

In the first part “The voodoo of web metrics” of this series, I talked about the various methods for computing web metrics. In this post, I’ll cover some of the players in this industry and the methods they employ for metrics calculation.

Alexa:

Alexa is the grand-daddy of web analytics. Alexa has been around since Web 1.0 days and is often used by several bloggers as a quick reference to statistics related to popular websites.

Methodology: Alexa data is collected via the Alexa toolbar that is installed by willing participants. Their methodology for calculating the statistics is fairly well documented. Based on the classification in my earlier post, Alexa employs user focused, browser toolbar based method for collecting data.

The two main things working in Alexa’s favor are:

a) Alexa data and graphs are free to use. Hence, the service is used by a lot of bloggers to get an insight about traffic details for popular websites

b) Alexa is one of the few website analytics companies that provides international data. For instance, you can view the top websites in India over here.

The main drawback is that Alexa data is unreliable. There is unanimous agreement about this. Ever wondered why ? Well, it is because Alexa provides the ‘Alexa toolbar’ only for IE on Windows. While there are 3rd party extensions for Firefox, they arent the same as the official toolbar.

HitWise:

HitWise employs network centric data collection methods. They have developed proprietary software that is used by Internet Service Providers (ISPs) to collect anonymous data. ISP’s from several diverse geographies are used in data collection. The data is then aggregated from all the ISPs and used to compute the final statistics.

HitWise methodology and privacy practices are audited by PriceWaterhouseCoopers (PwC).

HitWise data is not free and the company makes press releases from time to time.

ComScore:

Comscore employs user focused, panel management based method for data collection. They have a user panel consisting of 2 million participants worldwide. The panelists are recruited through a variety of random recruitment methods. The data gathered from the panel is coupled with surveys and then statistically sampled to yield the final results. You can read more about their methodology here.

With the emergence of Web 2.0, Comscore has enjoyed an upswing in its popularity as it is used as a reference by some of the top tech bloggers. They also recently released statistics related to India.

However, the interesting thing to note is that Comscore data has not been audited yet. They began the process of an audit just recently. Till the audit completes, you’ve gotta take Comscore data at its face value.

Moreover, I’m wondering about how they recruit users for the panel. After all, if I’m a tech savvy user, I’d never be interested in participating in a panel and install some dubious tracking software on my computer.

Compete:

The exact methodology used by Compete is unclear. However, it seems that they use a combination of user panel, ISP based and browser toolbar based methods for data collection. They have a 2 million strong user panel and focus mainly on the US market. Their basic service (with limited options) is free. Additional options are available for paid users.

Since Compete mainly focuses on the US market, it cant be used reliably for websites, whose main user population resides outside the US.

Quantcast:

Quantcast uses a combination of panel based and website based pixel tracker to gather data. Their exact methodology is not very clear at this time. The problem with their approach is that not all websites agree to using 3rd party tracking code in their website. As a result, I’d say they rely more on the panel measurement for data collection.

Now that we’ve reviewed how each service calculates website statistics, the million dollar question arises -

“Which service offers the most reliable data?”

Sadly, the answer is none.

The problem with browser toolbar based approach is obvious - it relies on willing participants who agree to install the toolbar. Moreover, if the toolbar is specific to a browser/platform, it leaves out data collection from other browsers-platforms.

The problem with user panel based data collection is in the details - how are the panel of users recruited ? How does this panel represent the overall Internet population as a whole ? Are users in the panel are aware of how their surfing habits will affect the panel data ?

The problem with website based tracking data is that not all websites would be willing to install the tracking code.

The problem with ISP based data collection is that the data collection depends on which all ISP’s are participating in the data collection process and to what level. Moreover, ISP based data collection doesnt include SSL traffic.

Here’re a few good examples of the web analytics mess.

It’s a shame, but web analytics is at best, just a form of voodoo. Make a best possible guess and if it falls flat, come up with a story to explain the goofup.

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5 Responses to “Comparison of Web Analytics sites”

webmaster on January 4th, 2008 6:03 am

We were able to take up our Alexa Ranking by over 1000% in under three months. To learn more on how we were able to do this:
http://blog.ourwedding.in/?p=7
Pranav on January 5th, 2008 12:42 pm

Hey Pranav!
iam surprised to see what’s written in the post! and i beg to differ
Here’s my views.

“Title Says: Comparison of Web Analytics Sites!”
Your not comparing Web Analytics Sites.. alexa, Comscore Hitwise all are competitive intelligence sites and no way can be considered as Web Analytics Vendors or ASP Providers.

Alexa is the grand-daddy of web analytics:
Untrue, they do not fall under Web Analytics service providers, Web Analytics Evolved from the log file analysis from web server.

and none of these even should be considered as a way to measure your website performance! only web analytics tools like Google Analytics, Omniture, WebTrends, CoreMetrics, ClickTracks, Indextools, Nedstat to name the major player should be used.

So iam afraid the post should be named more on comparison Competitive Intelligence rather Web Analytics.. coz if you just use one of the above Web Analytics Tool.. you will just love the data and the kind of information you get from these tools…!!

the best definition for me is, Web Analytics help understand the Pulse of your site visitors..

Cheers
Anil
pranav on January 6th, 2008 3:11 pm

@Anil,

Call it web metrics / competitive intelligence / internet measurement / web statistics / traffic data - whatever you feel most comfortable with.

the goal of the post is more towards comparing the various services.
dev on April 10th, 2008 5:36 am

great comparison!
Rushik Shah on April 12th, 2008 9:52 am

Absolutely I completly agree with Pranav

The top Web Analytics companies are

CoreMetrics,
Google Analytics,
Omniture,
WebTrends,
etc.