November 17th, 2006
Alexa mashup site alexaholic lets you compare VoIP provider site traffic over time
I've been having a little fun with alexaholic, a type of Alexa mash-up that lets you compare estimated page view totals and traffic patterns for several websites over specific lengths of time.
Let's compare relative page view rankings for Skype, Vonage, Packet 8, Gizmo Project and SunRocket site views over a six month period, and then over the most recently computed seven days. These Alexa projections - which are far from definitive but are often cited as a good general barometer of site traffic patterns- rank these sites along with all other sites in Alexa's index.
First, a caveat: these are estimates of visits to each provider's site, not estimates of how often each provider's service is used. Nevertheless, this info is useful because spikes in web site visits often accompany consumer excitement about new features or downloads.
First, a sixth-month view for the sites I have mentioned:
We can see that Skype's site was especially hot six months ago, leveled off gradually since then, but shows signs of picking up. Vonage peaked in late June but has come back in the last month. And Gizmo's site was especially popular in lat July, but has been trailing off since that time.
But how about for the most recently charted seven days?
Unquestionably more of a steady-state view, but some definite upward movement for Packet 8, SunRocket and Gizmo's sites as this week went on.
Russell Shaw is an enterprise computing journalist, analyst and author based in Portland, Oregon. See his full profile and disclosure of his industry affiliations.
