I’m having lunch with the CEO of Compete Scott Ernst, after speaking at his client event, we’re kidding each other about who’s blog is better, in fact there’s been two rankings about it, Ad age and we’re at a photo finish over at technobabble, . Many of you may be familiar with compete.com, but they do more than that.
In his presentation I learned a lot more about what they do, but over lunch, I just told him that awareness is very low: “Until today, I had no idea these other services you provide”. He agreed, and I suggested we do a market test to ask people what they think
I know from my recent survey that most of my readers are the people he also wants to reach (see graph), so lemme ask you
Leave a comment below, what do you think Compete does?
Scott, who blogs on the Compete team blog, is interested to hear what you have to say, I hope he responds from his blog, and I’ll update this post.
um…help companies be more competitive through web analytics and finding sweet spots for doing better?
“Compete helps you benefit from click-sharing by providing free services that create a more trusted, transparent, and valuable Internet.”
What the hell does that means?
It’s an unfair question for me since I helped them out with the launch of their site last year, but a lot of tech news sites I read carry Compete charts and data alongside the comscores and alexas of the world, so I’m pretty sure I’d have knowledge of them even without some direct involvement. Here’s an on-topic example (since I’m here following a tweet): http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/04/29/end-of-speculation-the-real-twitter-usage-numbers/
Compete shows web analytics a la Alexa. From what I know, their focus seems to be on helping companies uncover potential sources of traffic by examining the traffic, keywords and links for their competitors and/or peer companies.
I played with a demo but when I put our own sites into the app the results were mediocre.
Then again, none of the other apps like Alexa are any better.
We use Compete.com and Alexa.com to generate numbers for similar sites in our market.
Unfortunately, because the information is based on browser bar installations, colleagues raise issues about the value of these numbers. I explain that they need to look at trends, not numbers. But it is still a hard sell.
We use these free tools because we don’t have the marketing budget to do more.
I did notice that compete.com recently changed it’s free list of top 5 searches for each site to the top 3. Bummer.
Getting more search terms is enticing, but because of the limitations on traffic stats, it may be tough to convince people to dig around for money to dig deeper into the search terms.
I haven’t delved further than that.
Compete.com compiles data and creates charts of what your competition is doing?
Maybe the answer to “What do you think Compete does?” becomes more clear when you need them.
Maybe.
LOL! I have to agree with Duarte. I’ve been in the web industry since ’94 and I have no idea what that means.
I thought they were like just like Alexa.
My Guess? I haven’t read any comments yet. Consulting firm that works with online retailers to customize the user experience.
web analytics
It means the internet has been devalued by their embarrassing mission statement
fancy web analytics?
Who Knows? Who cares? I’ve seen the name a lot. But as far as I know, they do about the same thing as Alexa.
Like Alexa, but with real numbers (not just rank – actual traffic stats).
US only though.
If they added some services alla spyfu, that would be fabulous.
I use their data all the time to see our traffic relative to our competitors. I also use it to see what keywords are bringing visitors to our competitors’ sites. This helps me adjust my search engine marketing keyword buys. I agree with Laura’s comment above that the methodology for gathering data isn’t perfect, but neither is comscore, Hitwise, et al. In addition, the individual report costs are very inexpensive (unlike their competition).
I want to hear more about how they’re integrating with Cymfony and the rest of TNS…
Interesting, some of the folks I know who left comments are developers or marketing folks. The fact they don’t know the full set of services that Compete does is an opportunity.
Corey Mathews is our web guru at Forrester. Peter Kim is fully aware, obviously, he knows this space well. I heard a bit about how they will integrate, we’ll talk later Pete.
I received a few other public responses in Twitter, I’ve identified a few of their roles, here they are:
(Web Professional)
88hawaii @jowyang Dunno what Compete Inc. does, but I have the sense that they’re not just your average pushover.
BethHarte @jowyang They need a better homepage…Mktg research, but where’s the wow factor?! A big graph doesn’t draw me in for more…
Tyson Goodridge goodridge @jowyang- plus its a little sprinkle of google analytics as well…?
Facebook Widgets Developer and CEO
Rodney Rumford Rumford @jowyang compete does site analytics and toolbars for deals (where they make money?)
Tyson Goodridge goodridge @jowyang Compete is a much better Alexa (I have a friend who works there whose probably not too happy I just blurted this out)
raw_dan raw_dan @jowyang i think compete provides new and old companies with good analytics and good advice for better competing chances about
Craig Ritchie craigritchie @jowyang – i knew what Compete does, but only found out recently that the method of gathering stats is the same as alexa’s. disappointing.
(Web Project Manager, and good friend)
Kit Seeborg zsazsa @jowyang Do they compete?
ingoju ingoju @jowyang: compete? 😉 about 3 hours ago from im in reply to jowyang
i just ran a few tests for their accuracy and it seems as if its a bit off from what my company has gathered from google analytics/webtrends. not to mention, this site came up with some weird keywords for my company that are different from all of our other paid services.
this is GREAT in concept, but has anyone tested the accuracy?
I saw someone comment about Alexa (Compete’s competition?) and found different stats. Although what I do like on Alexa is the Look and Feel archive I was able to see my company’s site from 1997! Could be valuable
I think they measure web site traffic (and related analytics) and think of them as similar to Alexa, ComScore, and Hitwise.
Compete does Web Analytics. And they have a cool blog;-) They also have a toolbar that you can use to learn more about a site…
Compete = Web analytics just like everyone else.
I work in a high-traffic web business with lots of competing web firms. I read their start page and I have no idea why I should be using them over anyone else.
I typed in a few domains, and I like the pretty graphs. But as a technical guy, I’m still not really sure what to make of the data that I’m seeing. I have a lack of faith in Alexa, b/c I know where it’s failings lie. Without more technical details, Compete is just an “also-ran” with a “prettier” toolset. I also see something about Coupons with their Toolbar?
Seems like a mess to me.
I have liked using Compete since the first time I came across it because it is always looking for new ways to measure domain metrics. While there are no true standards for measuring successful marketing efforts online, Compete offers a variety of measurements that allow marketers to visualize results for what’s important aside from simple page views.
Web analytics – like Hitwise or Alexa but with absolute numbers.
My concern is that there is simply no coverage for Europe. Any equivalent service in EU?