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Alexa is a simple handy toolbar that fits
into Internet Explorer 5.0 or a higher version
and acts as a friendly companion that remains
on while you browse. Providing you all the
"Inside Information" about the site,
like contact details, traffic ranking, customer
reviews, related sites and other sites that
direct a link to the particular site you are
surfing. The amazing toolbar along with all
these provides you a quick and easy search
without disturbing your browsing.
With
the help of Alexa toolbar you can:
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Search
the web without visiting a search
engine web site.
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Get
name & contact details of the
web site owner.
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Know
about more sites similar to the site
you are visiting. This becomes very
useful when you're surfing the Internet
to buy a particular product. Alexa
might list the sites of other manufacturers/sellers
of the same product, giving you a
better choice.
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Share
the favorite links with your friends
with common interest.
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Collect
the information about how many times
this site has been updated in the
past & how was the previous look.
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Each
of the utilities provided by Alexa toolbar
is explored here so as to make you aware about
the importance of using Alexa while browsing
the Internet.
1)
Alexa Toolbar - Search
The
first & foremost source to find information
on the Internet is a search engine. We generally
visit the search engine, for example
www.google.com to fetch the desired
sites typing suitable keywords. Alexa toolbar
has this facility inbuilt, which means that
there is no need to visit a search engine
site. Just key in the suitable keyword in
the Alexa toolbar & press search, you
will get the matching results from the Google
search engine as Alexa search engine is powered
by Google.
All
said and done but what's so exiting about
this? Hold on, along with the listing; you
will also get an option to see more details
about the site. When you submit the keyword,
it will list sites with two separate links,
one link will directly take you the web site
& other link will provide you with useful
information about the site. That's the auto-generated
profile of the site!
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Thumb
Image of the Home Page.
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Brief
description of the contents. |
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Average
traffic ranking. |
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An
average review of the site. |
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Links
of Similar or Related sites, people
who visited the site. Alexa keeps this
record & serves as guideline for
every tool bar user. |
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The
site is online since when. The date,
month & year. |
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How
many other sites point links to this
site. This gives you an idea about how
popular/important the site is. |
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Name
& address of the company/owner along
with email address & telephone numbers. |
2.
Alexa Toolbar - Site Info
According
to the point no. 1 (Alexa toolbar - Search)
if we select more information about the site,
it displays all the information in one page,
& leaves the site, where as Site info
on the toolbar helps us to view the information
about the site without leaving it in a drop
down format from the toolbar itself. Very
useful in the case where contact information
is not displayed on the home page. Apart from
contact details it also gives average review
& links to read reviews, number of sites
pointing to the current site & link to
view all the information about since when
its online.
3.
Alexa Toolbar - Ranking
Serves
as a very useful guideline to compare the approximate
traffic between the two different sites generated
on the same topic. Alexa computes traffic ranking
by recording the web usage of millions of Alexa
toolbar users. Ranking is calculated based on
the 3 months data of Alexa users & their number
of visits to different web sites.
It is very important to mention here that this
ranking is to be treated as guideline to compare
& is not accurate because it does not take
into consideration visitors,
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Using
browser other than Internet Explorer.
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Not
using windows as their operating system.
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Visiting
secured pages. |
4.
Alexa Toolbar - Related links
Very
useful utility to find out new sites. Even
though these sites are not listed anywhere
in the search engine, you will be able to
find them here as Alexa comprises of data
from millions of users & several sites
they visit. It also lists the directory category
that will list all the sites related to particular
keyword. For example, if you are visiting
the site of a blood bank, it will display
categories where the site list of blood banks
is listed. So you will also get web addresses
of other blood banks, thus more options and
optional information. It turns out to be
very useful when you are trying to find out
manufacturers/resellers of a particular product.
5.
Alexa Toolbar - Tell your friend
Imagine, while surfing you reach a particular
site that might be useful for you as well
as your friends/colleagues with common interest.
Click on the specified button, it pops up
a new window where you can enter your friend's
email address, site URL is recorded automatically.
The most important benefit is that you don't
have to open your email site and compose a
new mail.
6.
Alexa Toolbar - Wayback Machine
You visited a site. Now suppose next day you
revisited the same site and you found a new
site or an irritating 'under a maintenance'
message. But you desperately want some information
by hook or by crook. One chance to get it
is by using this history button of Alexa Toolbar.
It takes you to the Internet archives. The
Internet Archive is a service using which
the Internet user can visit the archived versions
of the stored website.
Apart
from all this, if you visit www.alexa.com
you will also be able to see movers & shakers,
an interesting report on sites' popularity. Alexa
also calculates 'weekly reach' for each site on
the net & compare it with its previous average
weekly reach. If there is a drastic change, be
it positive or negative, the sites are added in
movers & shakers list.
"Alexa toolbar installation
on my machine made my browsing experience smarter
& interesting. Now it's your turn to decide.
You get everything under one umbrella, and that
too without disturbing your surfing. So hurry
up and download your copy of Alexa toolbar at…"
Regards,
All accompanying logos, brands and product
names are trademarks of their respective companies.
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