Don't lock, please interpret the graph on the Alexa Candidate page.

[madfloridian]

http://pages.alexa.com/features/candidates.html

I thought I understood that it is like with Amazon, the lower the number the higher the rank at Alexa. If that is so, then Dean is 3,530 and Clark is 15,785.

I do want to understand how the numbers work. We once got confused her about the Free Republic/DU numbers, and I forgot how we resolved it.

On edit:
Pruner just requested his thread be locked. I am just trying to determine the way the graphs work. Not trying to start anything.

[pruner]

1. Dean has much more traffic in general…

but Clark's site did in fact exceed Dean's site yesterday in terms of traffic (measured by Alexa).

click on the link below to see the Clark line cross above the Dean line.

http://traffic.alexa.com/graph?w=379&h=216&r=6m&u=deanforamerica.com/&u=clark04.com

[pruner]

2. from 'jc' on Dean's blog

I also saw the claim on Clark's site about the website traffic, so I checked with Alexa's stats, since I have a page with them on my website (click). They are correct in saying that yesterday, webtraffic was higher on the Clark site than on the main Dean site. Of course, the Dean traffic is divided among several sites, so pure comparison is difficult. (blogforamerica.com, forumforamerica.com, generationdean.com, gendeanblog.com, howarddean.tv) - but clark04.com did get more hits yesterday than deanforamerica.com. Over a 3 or 6 month average, which is what Alexa uses for their certified rankings, the Dean site is still far ahead.

[Capn Sunshine]

3. In the meantime we raised $383,000+ this weekend via the net

how much did the General raise?

[pruner]

4. I think you meant to say $353,000+

[Capn Sunshine]

7. yep.typo.

:nuke:

[madfloridian]

5. Ok, compare the daily traffic trend charts.

Clark, up until yesterday:
http://www.alexa.com/data/details/traffic_details?q=&url=www.clark04.com

Dean, up until yesterday:
http://www.alexa.com/data/details/traffic_details?q=&url=www.deanforamerica.com

It does not look higher to me for Clark. I don't especially care, there will be days one site goes higher. I just want to understand it. Maybe I am looking at the wrong things.

Dean was having a fundraiser with the bats, so I wondered. Just explain how the first link shows a higher traffic than the second one. Look at the graphs.

[RandomUser]

9. Try this

http://www.alexa.com/data/details/traffic_details?&range=3m&size=large&url=www.deanforamerica.com#graph

Now enter clark04.com as the site for comparison, and you'll see both sites on the same chart. The traffic on Clark04.com exceeded that of Deanforamerica.com yesterday. The numbers were posted somewhere else.

Edited to add: caveat, this is traffic as measured by Alexa, so take it for what it's worth.

[arcos]

6. Alexa is not a good measure...

only people with the Alexa bar are counted.

[Catch22Dem]

8. I've never even heard of Alexa

And I don't use those nifty little bars like Alexa and Google. I don't use IE either. I guess that means I don't count. LOL. At least not for the purposes of this discussion.

[TreasonousBastard]

10. Coupla things to note.

As someone already mentioned, this only applies to people who have installed the Alexa toolbar, and we don't know how many have, or how that skews the numbers. AFIK, Alexa sends raw data about sites visited to Alexa Central, and doesn't know about anything else going on.

It is possible that Alexa users are representative of surfers in general, or it is possible that Alexa users are heavy Deanites, or Alexa users are heavy Clarkies, or none of the above. The point is we don't know. I suspect the numbers aren't off enough to worry about, though.

Dean was heavily into internet campaigning before anyone else. It's natural that he would have better numbers and more hits. His hit count doesn't necesarily represent actual support, but it might.

And, if this is primarily hit count, it could mean a lot of people are just looking for information, or found a convenient link, and doesn't represent support, just good PR and effective web advertising.

In any graph, it's the trend that counts. Dean's line seems to be drifting down, while Clark's is slightly drifting up. Ignore the blips, and look for the long-term trend.

One interesting thing that could mean nothing, or a lot, is that Clark shot up out of nowhere. Kerry seems to have had a flurry of interest, but then died down, and everyone else stayed stable. When Clark started to look serious, and then announced, his numbers almost immediately shot up toward Dean's. A whole hell of a lot of people are interested in taking a look at him for whatever reason.

[HFishbine]

12. Hmmm

I don't know about Alexa. Do you believe this? (democraticunderground.com vs. freerepublic.com)

http://www.alexa.com/data/details/traffic_details?&range=6m&size=medium&url=democraticunderground.com#top

on eidt: Don't bother with the link. For some reason, it's not showing the comparison. You'll have to do it manually.

[gottaB]

11. I don't like Alexa because they exclude Carol and Dennis

from their candidates page.

Here is the Alexa info on www.carolforpresident.com. She would be ranked 8th among the candidates.

The info for kucinich.us is here. That site would rank 5th among the candidates.

To answer your question, I think you are understanding it correctly. Dean's site is the 3,530th most popular website. Clark's is the 15,785th.

The graph just shows fluctuations in the rankings of the top four candidate websites over the month of October.