Alexa Rankings changed drastically Blogs lose Ranks

Alexa ranking system which is generally counted to be wrong by several webmasters have changed their ranking system with improved methodology and now the traffic is tracked from several different sources which may be toolbars installed on user’s computers.

Here are some of the biggest changes i have seen :

Shoemoney.com : Was 2xxx Rank : Now 19818 Rank
Problogger : Was 3xxx Rank : Now 12917 Rank
JohnChow : Was 5xxx Rank : Now 17088 Rank
DigitalPoint : Was 3xxRank : Now 938 Rank
Global Internet Index : Was 66000 Rank : Now 45323 Rank
JimKarter : Was 40xxxRank : Now 187845 Rank
AmitBhawani : Was 70000Rank : Now 54006 Rank
Labnol : Was 19000 Rank : Now 14626 Rank

This clearly shows that Alexa previously used to track down websites based on webmaster’s traffic and give webmaster related websites a better rank but now it seems to be perfectly tracking everything.

Here is some info from Alexa Announcement page

When Alexa began displaying rankings in 1998 it was with the goal of showing Alexa Toolbar users how popular any given site was within the Alexa community. We generated the rankings through an analysis of Internet usage by people who use the Alexa Toolbar. Since that time we’ve been delighted to see that the Alexa Rankings have become a yardstick by which website popularity is measured. We are grateful to the thousands of people who come to Alexa.com each day to check the Alexa Rankings.

In recent months we’ve heard from our Alexa users that understanding Internet usage beyond Alexa Toolbar users was increasingly of interest. Ask and you shall receive!

We listened to your suggestions, and we believe that our new rankings system is much closer to what you asked for. We now aggregate data from multiple sources to give you a better indication of website popularity among the entire population of Internet users.
My site’s ranking has changed. Was it wrong before?
Will you change the rankings again?
I liked the old rankings better. Are they still available somewhere?

Did you gain/lose any rankings in Alexa?

[via amitbhawani.com]