Amazon has recently revealed that it will be shutting down its website ranking system Alexa.com, after over two and a half decades’ worth of operation.
I’m pretty sure most of our current readers will associate the Alexa name to Amazon’s other product, that being their famous AI assistant in a pill. Then again, a device that reads out messages, plays music, tells you the time, and does all sorts of other day to day relevant tasks at the prompt of a voice was bound to gain more attention than Alexa.com. For those still confused or unaware, the Alexa website is essentially a tool that can be utilized in the interest of website and business owners trying to gauge their audience. It provides accurate measures on online traffic, has a global website ranking system that helps users measure their growth, and even provides detailed SEO analytics to users starting out. It was a website that saw the potential of the internet all the way back in 1996, and decided to help others use it for their own gain.
Of course, the question arises: if Alexa.com has always this helpful, why retire it? Well, Amazon released no statement on the matter, short of calling the discontinuation a difficult choice, but we can speculate. Multiple sites, such as even Google, provide information about web traffic nowadays. We can use those to note the traffic across Alexa.com, and see that it’s been in constant decline since the 2010’s. The other problems are, well, the websites that we used to check said traffic. Analytical tools have become so readily available online, and the market is now much more constrained than it used to be back in the late 90’s.
Analytics are not only available across multiple platforms, they’re also available for free; or at least for more affordable price ranges. I’m not calling Alexa.com the most expensive product out there, of course not, but there are far too many alternatives available. Yet another issue is that we currently live in the golden age of social media, which has become a major medium for conducting business. With social media platforms already possessing incredibly detailed and specific insights into audience and growth metrics, Alexa.com’s position as a website analyst seems even less relevant.
Therefore, in the face of irrelevancy and declining attention, perhaps Amazon decided that it was time to axe the platform as a whole. Goodbye and good speed, Alexa.com. You may not have been the best of them, but you were the first and foremost.
Read next: Analysis Reveals How Cheap Your Credit Card Info Might Be on the Dark Web
I’m pretty sure most of our current readers will associate the Alexa name to Amazon’s other product, that being their famous AI assistant in a pill. Then again, a device that reads out messages, plays music, tells you the time, and does all sorts of other day to day relevant tasks at the prompt of a voice was bound to gain more attention than Alexa.com. For those still confused or unaware, the Alexa website is essentially a tool that can be utilized in the interest of website and business owners trying to gauge their audience. It provides accurate measures on online traffic, has a global website ranking system that helps users measure their growth, and even provides detailed SEO analytics to users starting out. It was a website that saw the potential of the internet all the way back in 1996, and decided to help others use it for their own gain.
Of course, the question arises: if Alexa.com has always this helpful, why retire it? Well, Amazon released no statement on the matter, short of calling the discontinuation a difficult choice, but we can speculate. Multiple sites, such as even Google, provide information about web traffic nowadays. We can use those to note the traffic across Alexa.com, and see that it’s been in constant decline since the 2010’s. The other problems are, well, the websites that we used to check said traffic. Analytical tools have become so readily available online, and the market is now much more constrained than it used to be back in the late 90’s.
Analytics are not only available across multiple platforms, they’re also available for free; or at least for more affordable price ranges. I’m not calling Alexa.com the most expensive product out there, of course not, but there are far too many alternatives available. Yet another issue is that we currently live in the golden age of social media, which has become a major medium for conducting business. With social media platforms already possessing incredibly detailed and specific insights into audience and growth metrics, Alexa.com’s position as a website analyst seems even less relevant.
Therefore, in the face of irrelevancy and declining attention, perhaps Amazon decided that it was time to axe the platform as a whole. Goodbye and good speed, Alexa.com. You may not have been the best of them, but you were the first and foremost.
Read next: Analysis Reveals How Cheap Your Credit Card Info Might Be on the Dark Web