Over the years there have been many attempts to make maps of the Internet, including geographical maps that show where network nodes are located geographically and other more esoteric network topology maps showing how backbone servers connect to each other. Here are some examples:
Internet Infrastructure Maps
Internet Geography Maps
Alexa has dabbled in this area as well with a few map/graphical features. For example, in the Alexa Toolbar you can click on a link "map and directions" that will take you to a geographical map of the site owner's address. Then there is the Alexa Browser powered by TouchGraph which provides a graphical view of Alexa Related links for any site. And we used to work with MIDS.org to provide data for a graphical traceroute program.
I had always thought that there must be some killer Internet app there, but nothing has ever come of it. Now, along comes Google, with their beautiful maps application, and an open API. I suspect this is going to kick start a new round of innovation in the Internet mapping space.
Does anybody have any good ideas for mixing up Alexa's info about Web sites (free via Alexa's API) and Google's maps?
Comments
Thursday, June 30, 2005
Monday, June 20, 2005
Yafoo Phisher
No, I didn't misspell the headline, it really does say Yafoo Phisher. Last week Japan made their first arrest in a phishing case against a man who set up a site, Yafoo, intended to look like Yahoo and steal information from unsuspecting victims.
I've been meaning to talk about "phishing" here on the blog for some time. A lot of people don't know what it is and aren't aware that this type of scam exists. Here's a great break down on wikipedia.org: phishing. In brief, phishing is an attempt to steal sensitive or personal information by masquerading as a reputable business. In the recent case in Japan, the site was Yafoo and people were tricked into believing it was Yahoo... it looked the same.
How big a problem is phishing? According to a Gartner group report from last year over 30 million adults have experienced a phishing attack and 1.78 million have fallen victim to one. I receive phishing scams in my in-box several times a day. Often they appear to be from Microsoft, Citibank or E-Bay and they say that there is something wrong with my account and that I need to fix it. But I haven't fallen for the bait.
What can you do? First of all, you should always be suspicious of all marketing, online or not. You should always take care to know who you are doing business with.
How can you tell if a site is who they claim to be? You could use the Alexa Toolbar. The Alexa Toolbar is the original anti-phishing toolbar and it can give you the information you need. For example, if you were to visit yafoo.com (Yahoo has taken over the page now) you could take a quick look at the Alexa Toolbar and see that it isn't Yahoo. You would see that yafoo is ranked in the millions, not #1, like Yahoo, and that the site has only 1 link pointing to it. Clearly not Yahoo.
The bottom line is this. Be careful. Be susipicious. Know who you are dealing with and use an anti-phishing toolbar.
I've been meaning to talk about "phishing" here on the blog for some time. A lot of people don't know what it is and aren't aware that this type of scam exists. Here's a great break down on wikipedia.org: phishing. In brief, phishing is an attempt to steal sensitive or personal information by masquerading as a reputable business. In the recent case in Japan, the site was Yafoo and people were tricked into believing it was Yahoo... it looked the same.
How big a problem is phishing? According to a Gartner group report from last year over 30 million adults have experienced a phishing attack and 1.78 million have fallen victim to one. I receive phishing scams in my in-box several times a day. Often they appear to be from Microsoft, Citibank or E-Bay and they say that there is something wrong with my account and that I need to fix it. But I haven't fallen for the bait.
What can you do? First of all, you should always be suspicious of all marketing, online or not. You should always take care to know who you are doing business with.
How can you tell if a site is who they claim to be? You could use the Alexa Toolbar. The Alexa Toolbar is the original anti-phishing toolbar and it can give you the information you need. For example, if you were to visit yafoo.com (Yahoo has taken over the page now) you could take a quick look at the Alexa Toolbar and see that it isn't Yahoo. You would see that yafoo is ranked in the millions, not #1, like Yahoo, and that the site has only 1 link pointing to it. Clearly not Yahoo.
The bottom line is this. Be careful. Be susipicious. Know who you are dealing with and use an anti-phishing toolbar.
Monday, June 13, 2005
Michael Jackson Acquitted
We don't generally post news here on the blog, and I haven't been following the story (at least not on purpose, but who can help but know what's going on with this thing,) and it will be all over the news soon enough. But in case you wanted to know, MJ was acquitted of all charges. Link to story.
Maybe some interesting things regarding the case will happen on the web in the next few days and I'll be sure to blog about that. Will this affect our top search terms or our Movers and Shakers?
Maybe some interesting things regarding the case will happen on the web in the next few days and I'll be sure to blog about that. Will this affect our top search terms or our Movers and Shakers?
Tuesday, June 07, 2005
Has Search Killed Browse?
We've been tossing around some ideas here about how to redesign the Alexa site and somebody asked why we continue to show browse on our front page. A quick look around the web and you'll notice that browse is disappearing. Here, let's take a walk down memory lane, courtesy of the Internet Archive's Wayback Machine (built by the friendly folks here at Alexa) and see browse then vs. browse now.
Yahoo: April '97 vs. Now
MSN: May '99 vs. Now
Netscape: Feb '99 vs. Now
Go: Feb '99 vs. Now
What you see in all these examples is that in the past the browse directory was front and center and now it is subverted, hidden or otherwise gone. Even venerable Yahoo, whose brand was based on their directory, has now moved the directory to the point where I challenge you to find it on their front page... it is there, but way down "below the fold" and small.
What happened? The Web got a lot bigger for one. The impracticality of managing a comprehensive list of links to all Web content has become painfully obvious. There are just too many sites coming and going too quickly to do a good job at categorizing them all.
Then there is the user experience. How can a directory be expected to provide a decent experience when there are so many sites? Just try to find sites about Desperate Housewives. I got as far as Entertainment > Television Shows, then I was lost. What do I click on next? I have no idea where Yahoo's editors would put the show and frankly, I don't want to search through the 30+ categories to find it. It is too much work.
Compare that browse experience with search. Type Desperate Housewives into any search box and there you have it. No more hunting. Dead simple.
So, is browse dead?
Maybe. I am still partial to browse in Alexa's context. Unlike other directories, Alexa lets you see the top sites in any browse category. You don't have to sift through thousands of lousy sites to see the good stuff. Then there are the thumbnail images and the reviews which all add together to make it a relevant feature. It may not be as easy as search, but where else can you go to find the top cooking sites on the web? Or the top travel sites? Search can't give you that.
So, yes, browse is being displaced by search on all the top portals. But for Alexa, which provides more of a research type of experience, browse is still important. It introduces people to the power of the Alexa traffic data and still has a prominent place on our home page... for now.
What do you think? Is browse still relevant? Comments.
Yahoo: April '97 vs. Now
MSN: May '99 vs. Now
Netscape: Feb '99 vs. Now
Go: Feb '99 vs. Now
What you see in all these examples is that in the past the browse directory was front and center and now it is subverted, hidden or otherwise gone. Even venerable Yahoo, whose brand was based on their directory, has now moved the directory to the point where I challenge you to find it on their front page... it is there, but way down "below the fold" and small.
What happened? The Web got a lot bigger for one. The impracticality of managing a comprehensive list of links to all Web content has become painfully obvious. There are just too many sites coming and going too quickly to do a good job at categorizing them all.
Then there is the user experience. How can a directory be expected to provide a decent experience when there are so many sites? Just try to find sites about Desperate Housewives. I got as far as Entertainment > Television Shows, then I was lost. What do I click on next? I have no idea where Yahoo's editors would put the show and frankly, I don't want to search through the 30+ categories to find it. It is too much work.
Compare that browse experience with search. Type Desperate Housewives into any search box and there you have it. No more hunting. Dead simple.
So, is browse dead?
Maybe. I am still partial to browse in Alexa's context. Unlike other directories, Alexa lets you see the top sites in any browse category. You don't have to sift through thousands of lousy sites to see the good stuff. Then there are the thumbnail images and the reviews which all add together to make it a relevant feature. It may not be as easy as search, but where else can you go to find the top cooking sites on the web? Or the top travel sites? Search can't give you that.
So, yes, browse is being displaced by search on all the top portals. But for Alexa, which provides more of a research type of experience, browse is still important. It introduces people to the power of the Alexa traffic data and still has a prominent place on our home page... for now.
What do you think? Is browse still relevant? Comments.
Wednesday, June 01, 2005
Girls and Cars
What is better than girls or cars? Answer: girls AND cars. Or, more precisely, hot girls and fast cars (some may want to switch those two adjectives...) Take a look at this week's Movers and Shakers and see what people are clicking on this week. Some things are timeless.
First, the cars: Forbes Autos (forbesautos.com), from Forbes, inc. launched this week and immediately jumped up to the top of the auto mag heap with a daily rank of ~1000. Not bad at all. Compare that with caranddriver.com, now in the number two slot with a rank of 5,000. Some of the adjectives from the Forbes Autos press release: affluent, luxury, exotic, expensive... You get the idea.
Second, the girls: The Miss Universe Contest (www.missuniverse.com) aired on Monday (to disappointing ratings) causing a healthy rise in missuniverse.com's rank all the way up to ~250. In case you didn't see it, Miss Canada won, and, yes, she is beautiful. As a side note, have you ever noticed that it is women who watch these types of shows and not men? I've always found that odd, especially considering that the complaints about beauty pageants seem to come from women's groups... I digress.
Third, girls and cars: Now we have the magic combination of girls and cars. How about a banned television commercial featuring Paris Hilton, a car, a burger, and a wet bikini? Spicy Paris (www.spicyparis.com.) Or, how about a young beautiful model racing in the Indy 500? Danica Patrick (www.danicaracing.com.)
Unlike Miss Universe, the audience for this last category of sites is largely male and hungry for a Carl's Jr. Burger.
First, the cars: Forbes Autos (forbesautos.com), from Forbes, inc. launched this week and immediately jumped up to the top of the auto mag heap with a daily rank of ~1000. Not bad at all. Compare that with caranddriver.com, now in the number two slot with a rank of 5,000. Some of the adjectives from the Forbes Autos press release: affluent, luxury, exotic, expensive... You get the idea.
Second, the girls: The Miss Universe Contest (www.missuniverse.com) aired on Monday (to disappointing ratings) causing a healthy rise in missuniverse.com's rank all the way up to ~250. In case you didn't see it, Miss Canada won, and, yes, she is beautiful. As a side note, have you ever noticed that it is women who watch these types of shows and not men? I've always found that odd, especially considering that the complaints about beauty pageants seem to come from women's groups... I digress.
Third, girls and cars: Now we have the magic combination of girls and cars. How about a banned television commercial featuring Paris Hilton, a car, a burger, and a wet bikini? Spicy Paris (www.spicyparis.com.) Or, how about a young beautiful model racing in the Indy 500? Danica Patrick (www.danicaracing.com.)
Unlike Miss Universe, the audience for this last category of sites is largely male and hungry for a Carl's Jr. Burger.
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