[Air-l] social networking sites ranked by traffic [methods question]

[Sam Ladner]

Hi Paul,

It's interesting that you ask this ... I followed a similar thread on the
Web Analytics listserv in the last few weeks. It's a yahoo group with a
searchable archive of its messages:

http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/webanalytics/

Yes, all of these sources were discussed in great detail. Essentially I
believe the consensus came to be that HitWise was the most popular. I have
my doubts of the rigour of the group; many participants are not trained in
social research methods at all and discussions tend to lack any content
around validity or statistical significance. That said, however, you will
find an adequate summary of what private-sector practitioners tend to use
these days.

IMHO, none of these services have adequately solved basic validity problems.
They all claim to be "representative" but they fail to have robust sampling
methods and do not correct for them.

On 3/18/07, Paul DiPerna <pdiperna at blauexchange.org> wrote:
>
>
>
> For anyone interested in Web usage surveys and sampling/methods
> procedures, I have a quick question..
>
>   Do you see any particular methods "leader" among various website
> traffic monitoring services?
>
> The field that comes to mind consists of Hitwise (used in the O'Hear
> blog post), comScore Media Metrix, Nielsen NetRatings, and Alexa.
>
> My understanding is that comScore is generally the most valid and
> reliable service.  I'm not a methodologist by any stretch of the
> imagination, and so I'm be very interested to hear what people on our
> list might say.
>
>
> Here are some supporting URLs:
>
> Hitwise:
> http://www.hitwise.co.uk/products-services/how-we-do-it.php
>
> comScore Media Metrix (I've used comScore stats for a previous
> conference paper):
> http://www.comscore.com/method/method.asp
>
> Nielsen//NetRatings:
> http://www.netratings.com/downloads/us/NetView_US.pdf
>
> Alexa:
> https://websearch.alexa.com/static.html?show=webtour/start
>
>
> It would be interesting to see social network site rankings based on
> international usage..  I suspect market shares for MySpace and Facebook
> would decrease when compared to US-based stats, but I'm not sure by how
> much.  Cyworld, Bebo, orkut, and even Friendster have had considerable
> penetration outside the United States.
>
>
>   - Paul
>
>
> --------------
> Paul DiPerna
> Blau Exchange
> http://www.blauexchange.org
> email: pdiperna at blauexchange.org
> online ID: http://claimid.com/pdiperna
>
>
>
>
> > -------- Original Message --------
> > Subject: [Air-l] social networking sites ranked by  traffic
> > From: Jeremy Hunsinger <jhuns at vt.edu>
> > Date: Sat, March 17, 2007 12:38 pm
> > To: air-l at listserv.aoir.org
> > Cc: sils announce <sils-announce at list.pratt.edu>
> >
> > http://blogs.zdnet.com/social/?p=114
> >
> > could be useful
> >
> >
> > jeremy hunsinger
> > wiki.tmttlt.com
> > www.tmttlt.com
> >
> > ()  ascii ribbon campaign - against html mail
> > /\                        - against microsoft attachments
> > http://www.stswiki.org/  sts wiki
> > http://cfp.learning-inquiry.info/  Learning Inquiry-the journal
> > http://transdisciplinarystudies.tmttlt.com/  Transdisciplinary
> > Studies:the book series
> >
> >
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