One of my favorite features of
Quantcast is the ability to compare metrics like traffic for two different sites against each other. Make that “was” one of my favorite features. It disappeared earlier this week, but the company says it’ll make a comeback.
Quantcast launched the feature in December 2006. One thing I loved about it versus other comparison tools out there was that if two sites “Quantified,” used Quantcast’s tracking code on their sites, you were getting about as direct comparison as possible. There was no wondering if the figures were perhaps off for one site versus the other, as can happen with other tools.
When I checked with Quantcast about the feature, it promised that an updated and newly-designed feature will be “coming soon.” So, stay tuned.
I hope it will return. The move means that the only major free comparison tool left standing out there is Alexa. It does comparisons based on Alexa toolbar usage and other third-party data. However, Alexa has long been ridiculed in the marketing space as inaccurate, except by those who find the inaccuracies to their favor. Personally, I never use it or depend on it.
Google Trends For Web Sites, a more solid comparison tool, was closed last September by Google.
There’s Compete, of course — but you can’t directly compare two sites unless you move to a pricey PRO plan, for $200 per month. Instead, the only free option is to run reports separately for different sites, which you can also do with Quantcast.
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