Alexa & SearchStatus

[Simon]

This is a fork off from the initial thread called is Digg Dying. It was rumoured that the alexa widget could affect alexa rankings. I'm dubious about this claim, but it did get me thinking.

Searchstatus is an FF extension for viewing alexa ranking, google pagerank, and website backlinks. Even though the author's site says it doesn't, this extension does affect alexa ranking. I can say this because if you install the plugin, work heavily on a new site (with not much alexa traffic) for a few days, then view the alexa ranking, you will notice a large surge in ranking from your country of residence. Example here.

So, how does searchstatus transmit the info that affects rankings? After opening up the extension, you'll find a number of javascript files at the core. The main one is named searchstatus.js - and this is the file where things happen.

I've attached the file below, and also outlined the code I think *may* transmit the info (although it is a guess). Does anyone who is better versed in javascript want to have a look at the file to see where it might happen? If we pin it down, we should theoretically be able to use it on our own sites, to get proper data via alexa.

At least, that's my own thinking. Could be wrong!

var encodedUrl = ssUrlEncode( url );
var querystring = this.isAnonymize() ? "http://www.anonymization.org/-" : "http://";
querystring += "xml.alexa.com/data?cli=10&dat=nsa&ver=quirk-searchstatus&uid=" + this.mInstallDate + "&userip=" + this.mLocalIP + "&url=" + encodedUrl;
if( querystring != this.mAlexaQuerystring ) {
    debugss( "asking alexa..." );
    this.mAlexaRequest = new XMLHttpRequest();
    this.mAlexaRequest.onload = onAlexaRequestLoad;
    this.mAlexaRequest.open( "GET", querystring );
    this.mAlexaRequest.send( null );
    this.mAlexaQuerystring = querystring;
}

[chuckroast]

Hi simon

it looks as though alexa is called a few times in searchstatus.js

the first is here..

this.initAlexaFromDoc( -1 );
  			var encodedUrl = ssUrlEncode( url );
  			var querystring = this.isAnonymize() ? "http://www.anonymization.org/-" : "http://";
  			//querystring += "http://data.alexa.com/data/+wQ411en8000lA?cli=10&dat=snba&ver=7.0&cdt=alx_vw%3D20%26wid%3D12206%26act%3D00000000000%26ss%3D1680x1050%26bw%3D964%26t%3D0%26ttl%3D35371%26vis%3D1%26rq%3D4&url=" + encodedUrl;
				//querystring += "aws-beta.amazon.com/onca/xml?Service=AlexaWebInfoService&SubscriptionId=1ASYC6ZNPG2STTW2TXG2&Operation=UrlInfo&ResponseGroup=Rank,Related,ContactInfo&Uip=" + this.mLocalIP + "&Uid=" + this.mInstallDate + "&Url=" + encodedUrl;
				querystring += "xml.alexa.com/data?cli=10&dat=nsa&ver=quirk-searchstatus&uid=" + this.mInstallDate + "&userip=" + this.mLocalIP + "&url=" + encodedUrl;

And the next is here

var currdomain = this.mAlexaLastURL.replace( /http:\/\/(.+?)\/.*$/gi, "$1" );
  	var querystring = "http://www.alexa.com/data/ds/linksin?q=" + ssUrlEncode( "link:" + currdomain ) + "&url=" + ssUrlEncode( this.mAlexaLastURL );
  	
  	item.value = querystring;
  	ssOpenItemUrl( item );
  },
  
  showAlexaOverview: function( item )
  {										
  	var currdomain = this.mAlexaLastURL.replace( /http:\/\/(.+?)\/.*$/gi, "$1" );
  	var querystring = "http://www.alexa.com/data/details/main?q=&url=" + ssUrlEncode( currdomain );
  	
  	item.value = querystring;
  	ssOpenItemUrl( item );
  },
  
  showAlexaTrafficDetails: function( item )
  {
  	var currdomain = this.mAlexaLastURL.replace( /http:\/\/(.+?)\/.*$/gi, "$1" );
  	var querystring = "http://www.alexa.com/data/details/traffic_details?q=&url=" + ssUrlEncode( currdomain );
  	
  	item.value = querystring;
  	ssOpenItemUrl( item );
  },
  

  showAlexaCategory: function( item )
  {
  	var cat = item.getAttribute( "tooltiptext" );
  	if( cat )
  	{
  		var link = "http://www.alexa.com/browse_redirect?catpath=" + cat;
  		ssOpenUrl( link );

Hope that helps

[Simon]

That's true, but I wouldn't have thought that all those calls actually transmit information to alexa, would they? That would mean that every time you called a details page on the alexa site, it would count as a hit.

I don't know enough to know what triggers a hit unfortunately.

[chuckroast]

Simon,

This is a complete guess, but I'm assuming the information is transmitted though the first call
xml.alexa.com/data bla bla bla

[chuckroast]

I was wrong in my post above.. but .... I think I did find out how to report to alexa although you will need to modify pliggs navigation bar slightly.

Instead of using mydomain.com in your pligg navigation try using

http://redirect.alexa.com/redirect?{$my_base_url}{$my_pligg_base}

This should push every URL through alexa and record the pageviews.

Another neat thing is that you can use this when posting your link elsewhere where the URL is not shown.. For example: in my signature below check out the scooptube link.

I'm currently testing this out and will let you know the results.

[dollars5]

Wow, great findings - subscribing to this thread and will keep an eye on the progress.

[nzbullet]

When you say "you will need to modify pliggs navigation bar slightly" where exactly do you do this. I am using 9.7. Also will this improve your Alexa ranking?

[termite]

Originally Posted by chuckroast

I was wrong in my post above.. but .... I think I did find out how to report to alexa although you will need to modify pliggs navigation bar slightly.

Instead of using mydomain.com in your pligg navigation try using

http://redirect.alexa.com/redirect?{$my_base_url}{$my_pligg_base}

This should push every URL through alexa and record the pageviews.

Another neat thing is that you can use this when posting your link elsewhere where the URL is not shown.. For example: in my signature below check out the scooptube link.

I'm currently testing this out and will let you know the results.

Excellent Idea, However so far as my little knowledge goes, Google does not like redirections. While your ranking may improve in Alexa, Google ranking may come down.

This is just a thought... Please correct me if I am wrong.

[EarthFrisker]

Why fake it with such redirects? I know almost everyone who talks about Alexa is hip to doing it, but what happens when Alexa changes their programming, then you see your site look like it's dying.
Why do all of that at all? I think it's more fun to make your site an excelent one and like that old saying - If you build it they will come', I think it's true.

Our little site is starting to spike big time, more people come to the site than Alexa says I think but the Alexa is also getting bigger. In fact a weird thing - when I posted here Alexa rank jumped from all of the webmasters that visot the site.

Mike
http://www.earthfrisk.com - Social Bookmarking And Social Media

[Breckenridge]

Hi, I enjoyed using this tool for Firefox, but with the last update the function “Show Backward Links” was changed, for example with previous version links in Yahoo looked like this:
1) linkdomain:example.com -site:example.com - Yahoo! Search Results

and now they look like this:
2) Site Explorer - Search Results

Can you please let me know what I should do so the links look like in option 1?
Thanks

Breckenridge