Freerepublic.com's Internet Ranking Surpasses Salon's

Alexa.com ^ | February 3, 2003 | High Wheeler

[HighWheeler]

For the first time ever, the Internet ranking of freerepublic.com has surpassed salon.com's Internet ranking. Their rankings crossed over each other Monday, February 3, 2003, with freerepublic's ranking at an all time high of 803 (meaning that freerepublic.com was the 803rd most popularly ranked website on the Internet on Monday) while salon.com dropped the same day to 1378, a full 575 websites difference between them.

The biggest Alexa monitored surge of freerepublic.com happened in the last 3 weeks, driving the conservative website from a very respectable ranking of just over 2000, all the way up to 803.

The Alexa generated graph below shows salon.com's graph (and this weeks decline) in communist red, and freerepublic.com's dramatic 3 weeks upsurge shown in Patriot Blue. The crossover is shown on the right side of the graph.

Freerepublic.com is, as they state, "an online gathering place for independent, grass-roots conservatism on the web. We're working to roll back decades of governmental largesse, to root out political fraud and corruption, and to champion causes which further conservatism in America. And we always have fun doing it. Hoo-yah!" Members and regular visitors of Freerepublic call themselves "FReepers".

Salon.com is a publicly owned company that at one time in 1999 was on the NASDAQ at almost $15 per share. But since then, the stock and the company has suffered. Salon has been bleeding red in it's editorials and on its balance sheet since the beginning. In a tinge of irony, the stock now trades on what stockbrokers call the pink sheet for 5 cents a share. It appears that the attempt by Salon to merge Capitalism and Communism has not worked.

The sudden spike in popularity of Freerepublic cannot be fully explained, but the talk of ousting Saddam Hussein, the SOTU last week, and the Shuttle accident this weekend drove many people to Freerepublic. Even the Wall Street Journal recently browsed Freerepublic: over the weekend the WSJ mentioned that Freerepublic.com had scooped the Associated Press about the problems with Columbia by 11 minutes. By the way, the Associated Press's website, www.ap.org, was ranked only 1736 today on the Internet by Alexa.

[Mad Dawgg]

"It's probably due to thought provoking threads like this one. You can't get this level of intellectual discourse just anywhere!"

No it was this thread. that put us over the top!

[DoctorMichael]

Whadayamean 803rd! We ain't working hard enough!

[tubebender]

Doesn't anybody wonder what happened precisely three weeks ago to cause this amazing rise in popularity? Somebody big must have linked to us, who never did before. Either that, or it's some data collection weirdness at Alexa; there is nothing in John's daily stats that would indicate any huge increase in usage, unless they are all lurkers.

How about the FR fund raiser? (I know... i'm a day late to this party)

[ATOMIC_PUNK]

I wonder if James Woods is a freeper?

[Bob]

Again these liberal websites are drifting down the toilet everyday.

Actually, they're still swirling around the bowl on their way down.

[JSteff]

You know this means virtually nothing. This is only of Alexa users... not a huge number of experienced users I assure you.
But nice to see anyway.

[Redcloak]

A hatt once bit my sister's moose. It was nasti.

[RonDog]

Which one is missing, hmmmmmmmm?

Perhaps Michelle Malkin does not link to Free Republic because of THIS thread.

[RonDog]

Doesn't anybody wonder what happened precisely three weeks ago to cause this amazing rise in popularity?
Somebody big must have linked to us, who never did before.
Either that, or it's some data collection weirdness at Alexa;
there is nothing in John's daily stats that would indicate any huge increase in usage, unless they are all lurkers.

Methinks that the folks over at Alexa got FReeped, sort of.

Just as the Nielsen ratings of television popularity can be skewed if you have control over who has one of their "boxes," the Alexa ratings of Internet popularity can be skewed by power users here on FR adding the Alexa "toolbar" to their browsers.

I think.

See also, from my post on a previous thread:

Nice to see favorable publicity but note well that their rankings are created "...by analyzing the Web usage of millions of Alexa Toolbar users."

I've never seen, let alone used, an "Alexa Toolbar" and I'd bet that goes for the large majority of Freepers.
I wouldn't go to the bank with rankings based on a minuscule, and possibly not very representative, sample of the web-using public.

Aye, but that means that their "miniscule unrepresentative sample" is eminently FReep-able...

... i.e., subject to dramatic intervention by motivated members of this forum, who may download the Alexa toolbar at rates significantly higher rate than OTHER web-surfers...

While I have some concerns about letting Alexa (aka amazon.com) follow me around as I surf the web, I will keep their toolbox on my browser - for a while - to support this forum...

[Bob J]

Doubtful. As you know, MM was on RadioFR just a couple months ago, and, was very gracious to us at CPAC. In fact, she indicated she would like to become more involved in FR and FRN activities.

[I still care]

And just think of it, probably half of the hits DU got were just Freepers checking out to see what the evil ones had to say...

[Doctor Raoul]

Great, that's all we need. Joe Conason showing up at Jim Robinson's doorstep wanting to place a "personal ad".

[cajungirl]

Get out of Cheneys House!!,,,,I think that one put us over the top. The election here saved my life!!

[KneelBeforeZod]

*snicker*

[apackof2]

HOOHA!

[harpo11]

"The Alexa generated graph below shows salon.com's graph (and this weeks decline) in communist red, and freerepublic.com's dramatic 3 weeks upsurge shown in Patriot Blue. The crossover is shown on the right side of the graph."

Sure enjoyed your artistic analysis.

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