There are dozens of useless toolbars that software companies try to clog your browser with. Every search engine (Google, Yahoo, AOL, etc..) wants that prime real estate at the top of your browser. Admittedly, they can occasionally be helpful, but after about 20 seconds, I disable mine.
Source: www.alexa.com
There is one toolbar that I installed and will probably never uninstall: The Alexa Toolbar. The Alexa Toolbar only takes up a tiny space in the bottom right of your browser where there is already a toolbar and doesn’t take up any additional viewing space. It also adds a Related Links tab right next to Help at the top of your browser.
Source: http://www.alexa.com/toolbar/final
The Alexa toolbar not only helps you, but other users as well. Alexa collects the data only from people using the toolbar to report web traffic trends and web page traffic rank. For the top 100,000 pages, Alexa tracks more details about the page including the incoming links; those links along with pages other Alexa users with similar interest visit generate the Related Links. By using the Alexa toolbar you are able to give Alexa a better sample of where web traffic is going and what pages are worth looking at.
While some argue that Alexa Rank is worthless, I completely disagree. Alexa still does an excellent job of recording web traffic trends, demographics, and is useful for determining some degree of credibility. Some will cheat to gain Alexa Rank, but in the long run their site will fail since the traffic is falsely generated.
Because Alexa users tend to be more computer and internet savvy, they have a tendency to flock to more useful and credible pages. Compared to Plenty of Fish, people who go to Tech Crunch are more likely to be seeking more on internet than just dating/social networking which makes them more likely to have Alexa installed. Also, Alexa’s rank is based on each site’s 3 month traffic trends, so new sites’ rankings suffer until they are almost 3 months old.
Overall, Alexa is an extremely useful tool for users to find related, useful, credible content, and a good way for webmasters to determine the popularity of their site. If you want to help promote your favorite sites and find out about other great popular sites, definitely give Alexa Toolbar a whirl!
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LetUpdate Says:
September 8th, 2009 at 6:33 PM
I join in alexa toolbar network too. :D
Alla Goltsman Says:
September 8th, 2009 at 8:57 PM
This may be a very valid point. I was thinking of installing the Alexa toolbar, but was hesitant. I am willing to give it a try. BTW, I tried to tweet your pos, but there was an error message. I decided to show it to you.
Here it is, it happened when I tried to retweet you:
This TweetMeme button is pointing at a website that is performing a redirect. The TweetMeme button doesn’t support this behaviour; the URL it points to must be the final URL. (This can often be the cause of sites which require a login before viewing the website.)
* If you are the administrator of the website, advice on fixing this issue can be found in our support FAQ.
* If you are a visitor to the site, please contact the website’s administrator to notify them of the problem.
Benjamin Cip Says:
September 9th, 2009 at 12:03 PM
I’m not using the alexa toolbar yet, but I know it can help you to increase your alexa ranking. I’m very satisfied with my alexa ranking as this one is increasing significantly recently, Hope I’ll reach the rank 100,000 soon.
Agent 001 Says:
September 9th, 2009 at 2:47 PM
I recently installed Alexa Toolbar so that I can increase my Alexa Rank. I am not interested in anything more from it.
I also respect Alexa service as opposed to others.
Blake Waddill Says:
September 9th, 2009 at 3:26 PM
@LetUpdate – Do you use it for anything other than seeing page ranks?
@Alla – Thanks for letting me know about the tweet problem. I’m not really sure why it has been doing that. For now I have just uninstalled that sharing program and am using sociable. Hopefully people notice it as much ;-)
@Benjamin – Your Alexa rank is doing really well. How long has your site been up?
@Agent 001 – Alexa is good stuff. It is actually an amazon product I believe. At first i only installed it to increase my page rank, but I’ve actually gotten a lot of use from some of the other features. I often check out demographics of popular sites to see if they share the same target crowd or look at the keywords that they are searched by.
Roxanne Browning Says:
September 10th, 2009 at 2:20 PM
I have had it installed for few months, but now I know how to use it, thanks.
An ehow friend,
Roxanne
Lorenzo Wallace Says:
September 10th, 2009 at 8:40 PM
Great post. I use Alexa on my blog. I recommend everyone sign up for their own.
survivoryea Says:
September 11th, 2009 at 6:25 PM
Going to check into using it soon!
almir bojkovic Says:
September 12th, 2009 at 4:53 PM
i love alexa and all but it can be also really ineffective. The only time you’ll get accurate results with them is when your ranked in the top 90000′s.
Link Love to Blogging Friends on September 13, 2009 | Cho Toan dot Com Says:
September 13th, 2009 at 8:13 AM
[...] How the Alexa Toolbar can enhance your internet broswing [...]
MoonSpirit Says:
September 15th, 2009 at 10:49 AM
Hi Blake, Im new to this and this is the first time I have heard of Alexa, I will certainly do research on it, ty for the info and including me in. I do not have a web site as of yet,,, but Im working on it.
((((((((((((((((((hugs)))))))))))))))))))
Zeeshan Says:
September 15th, 2009 at 10:33 PM
i found Alexa rank to be useful.If you install Alexa toolbar and browse your site you will see lot of improvement in ranking.
.-= Zeeshan´s last blog ..Best twitter Client for Windows =-.
Blake Waddill Says:
September 16th, 2009 at 4:27 PM
@roxanne – I hope you are able to get extra use from Alexa
@survivoryea – I think you’ll find it to be useful.. It’s also fun to see how pages you go to frequently rank.
@almir – It is true that the higher the traffic a site gets, the more accurate alexa is. Even then, typically sites that draw more a internet savvy audience will rank higher than less internet savvy sites with the same traffic.
@Zeeshan – That can definitely help your rank. I try not to do that too much, so I don’t get a false impression of how popular my site is.
ShadesofBrown Says:
September 21st, 2009 at 4:00 PM
I agree that Alexa is valuable. I usually leave my analysis toolbars closed till I want them, it only takes a second to open
WebDevelopers is a great toolbar also.
Jaydip Parikh Says:
September 26th, 2009 at 4:19 AM
Hey ! Wonderful Information. Many people judges our site value just based on Alexa rank.