Forum Moderators: phranque
Then the directory would list the sites based on traffic. All sites would be public in the directory, but if you want to know exact traffic stats, then you would need to pay a fee to get that info.
As a webmaster, I would participate and do it, even though my sites do not get mountains of visitors, I think it would be a valuable tool to show advertisers where I rank among sites in my category.
More importantly, I want to know if you would do it?
I have an idea on listing websites in a directory based on their traffic. It would require webmasters using a script which would analyze their log files and report to my directory unique visitors and their page views only.
That would require a lot of trust. I'd feel uneasy about letting a script loose on my log files. They can be full of sensitive information that I wouldn't be keen to share with competitors. Stats can be a gold mine.
It also excludes all those sites which don't have access to raw logs, but instead have them processed and presented in a graphical and easy to interpret format. How many different formats of stats reporting are you prepared to support?
It also looks inherently open to abuse. Anyone with a reasonable amount of skill could fabricate higher traffic levels. So in all it sounds like a lot of work for you, in return for figures which will not necessarily be accurate.
More importantly, I want to know if you would do it?
Personally, no.
I know you are not the only person who looked at this thread, but I really appreciate you posting your thoughts. I can only assume by the silence from anybody who looked this that they agree with your assessment.
One more question for you Rosalind, would your mind be changed if Google offered something like this?
Thanks.
One more question for you Rosalind, would your mind be changed if Google offered something like this?
*Shudder*
Still no, in this hypothetical case. Even though Google have the motto "do no evil" and some might consider them less likely to screw people over, and they control an awful lot of traffic, I'd still want my stats to stay confidential. I'd also be trusting in my intuition that any SE that uses this method would become riddled with spam pretty soon, and get dropped like a stone by the general public.
Google already knows lots of things about your site that you don't. Giving them your traffic figures is likely to be a small drop in a very big ocean and of very little extra use to them
It's good to know I can come here with an idea and get an honest assessment whether it would be successful or not.
Macro, please sticky me your email address to receive that info. :P
