"Mirror mirror on the wall, who's the fairest of them all?" I'm going to bet that it's not you, um I mean, not your website. With all of the new websites popping up all over the place how do you know where you rank? How popular is your site compared to the next one?


In most cases it's safe to say that we all want our website to be popular. Maybe it means our business will be more profitable or maybe it's just good for the ego. Now there is a website that ranks the popularity of your website. The website is http://www.alexa.com.


Alexa.com is a blast to use and is one of those websites that is hard to leave. For starters, Alexa.com lists the most popular websites starting from the #1 position. It also lists the "Movers And Shakers", which are websites that are rapidly gaining or loosing popularity on the web. Alexa.com is a great tool for discovering new websites to visit because you can see where everybody else is going. It's fun, informative, and can be a good tool for comparing your website to the competition.


So how does Alexa.com work? In 1997 Alexa.com created a tool bar that tracked which websites people visited on the web. The tool bar was incorporated into early versions of NetScape and Internet Explorer. Today there are over 10 million Internet users who browse the Internet while using some form of the Alexa.com tool bar. These users are constantly generating statistics about their browsing habits. Alexa.com uses the data to create reports that outline the popularity of websites on the Internet.


So the next time you want to see how popular your website is, visit Alexa.com. Simply type in your website's address (www.yoursite.com) into the "search the web" box and press go. It will send you to a page full of statistics showing you how popular your website is right now. Just remember that being popular isn't the only important thing in life. There are good looks, money, and Monday Night Football too.






Craig Neidel has worked for NetSource Communications Inc. for 6 years and has experience in web development, e-commerce solutions and web marketing. NetSource Communications creates custom e-commerce solutions and web applications. http://www.ntsource.com.