IS DAILYKOS’S TRAFFIC EXAGGERATED?

UPDATE: Remembering past traffic wars. This reminds me that people used to accuse Sitemeter of undercounting, not overcounting. Hey, it’s not perfect, but it’s free. Still, I think this caveat is still true: “measuring web traffic accurately is basically impossible.” Not that measures of TV, radio, or newspaper audiences are any better.

Meanwhile, Dan Riehl looks at some Alexa numbers. I don’t believe in those much, as they depend on people being dumb enough to install the Alexa toolbar. . . .

Note how Slashdot is doing on Alexa.

ANOTHER UPDATE: Frank J. emails:

I noticed all the blogs have had a huge dip in Alexa rankings over the past year without necessarily having a dip in traffic according to Site Meter. My guess is it’s just more people are using Alexa as a standard and thus more people are learning how to game it. It’s pretty sensitive, as I’ve had a significant rise in rank on Alexa over the past couple weeks just by putting the toolbar on my own browser.

Alexa is worthless. No doubt if I encouraged InstaPundit readers to install the toolbar I’d go up, which would make Alexa happy, and otherwise mean . . . not much.

And I notice people in the comments asking questions about my traffic — er, folks, I’ve had an open counter for years. It’s in the right sidebar, or you can click here.