Alexa Web Information Service Launched

Today we launched the Alexa Web Information Service, AWIS, on the Amazon.com Web Services. Link.

AWIS provides data feeds to developers who wish to incorporate Alexa data into their site or service. In your travels you may have noticed Alexa data popping up in unexpected places across the Web -- on AdBrite, before you buy an ad you can see the seller's traffic rank, on HitsLink you can get Alexa data about your site's referrers, on IceRocket you get Alexa data in your search results. These sites and services all have one thing in common: AWIS. They use the Alexa Web Information Service to incorporate Alexa's data into their own apps.

You may have heard of the phrase "Web 2.0." The term "Web 2.0" refers to a shift in thinking about the Web. If Web 1.0 was a bunch of static html stand-alone Web sites, then Web 2.0 is a full-fledged computing platform served from a series of interlinked and dynamic databases. AWIS is one of those dynamic databases. In the Web 1.0 world developers would have had to invent their own Alexa in order to get traffic rank, related links and such. Now, in Web 2.0, developers can just access the Alexa data directly and incorporate it. It frees all developers to focus on what they do best and simply pull in the functionalty they need from supporting services like AWIS.

Keep an eye out. Alexa is going Web 2.0 and you are invited along for the ride. Link.

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