Yesterday Google launched their own web analytic guessing service based off their popular Trends platform. Google Trends for Websites offers “insights into the traffic and geographic visitation patterns of your favorite websites”.
You can now add Google to the list of web services like Alexa, Compete, Quantcast and ComScore that offer very interesting but not concrete traffic data. The fact of the matter is that unless you are pulling data directly from a website any numbers that these services provide have to be taken with a grain of salt. Some open analytic providers data might be better than others but at the end of the day the numbers found are not true numbers. Being a data junky I love services like Compete and Alexa, but I use that information as a guideline or for insight when working on various digital initiatives. I would never put those numbers as actuals - every one of these services collect and display data in a different way, therefore it is up to the user to determine the best service to use. Plus, I always make sure to use at least 2 open web analytic services when doing research - just to make sure the information I am using is as accurate as possible.
So the big question becomes, like with every other open web analytic service, how does Google calculate their data? According to Google: “Trends for Websites combines information from a variety of sources, such as aggregated Google search data, aggregated opt-in anonymous Google Analytics data, opt-in consumer panel data, and other third-party market research. The data is aggregated over millions of users, powered by computer algorithms, and doesn’t contain personally identifiable information. Additionally, Google Trends for Websites only shows results for sites that receive a significant amount of traffic, and enforces minimum thresholds for inclusion in the tool.” So, like I mentioned above, Google, and every one else, goes about collecting their data in a different way. Google however does have the chance to be a bit more accurate as they have a tremendous amount of Google Search data they can use, plus they can leverage the limited public Google Analytics data they collect.
You know what I would like to see? Open analytics, meaning every sites data logs are open for all to see. I am not talking about in-depth data but more like top-line info like visits and uniques. This way there would be far less questions when valuing a website from a advertising or competitive standpoint. Think anyone would go for sharing this info? Yeah I didn’t think so either
So lets look at the raw data and see how the players in the “open” web analytics field stack up head-to-head…for traffic comparison I used Facebook.com and Myspace.com. Each service uses different metrics to measure traffic so even though we aren’t comparing apples to apples you get the idea.
As you can see from the above 4 graphs the data each provides is somewhat the same. Myspace.com is more popular than Facebook.com and there is a similar amount of space between the two social networking giants. So, which one should you use? Well, for me it comes down to what I am looking for. Each service provides a little something different so I tend to use all 4 - however, I do lean towards Compete.com as I feel their information is not only more accurate but more consistent.
For more information on Google Trends for Websites visit their about / FAQ page.
