Mgmt. 298D: Electronic
Commerce
Prof. A. Geoffrion
SELF-DEMO 1
Know Your Market: Web Resources on Internet/Web
Activity (sources w/ hard data)
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Network Wizards at http://www.nw.com/zone/WWW/top.html.
Both K-W (p. 33) and K (p. 25) take their stats for Internet size from
their Internet Domain Survey, which twice/yr. attempts to count all host
computers on Internet. Latest results for July ’98: nearly 37 million.
Also tabulation by top-level domain and host name (like "www"). Survey
method documented well, but task turns out to be very difficult; company
cautions "it is not possible to determine the exact size of the Internet,
where hosts are located, or how many users there are." Site also has
links to related sources. One is www.mit.edu/people/mkgray/net/printable/,
which has a nice explanation of the Network Wizards survey.
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Media Metrix at http://www.pcmeter.com/
interact_mmmain.htm. See Media Metrix 500, updated quarterly: alphabetical
list of the 500 Internet sites (Web sites, on-line services, ISPs) attracting
most unique visitors during test month. Uses PC Meter software installed
on representative sample of 10,000 PCs in U.S. households. Press room has
constant flow of press releases containing data about popular sites. Note:
Media Metrix just measures activity, does not rate site quality.
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RelevantKnowledge, Inc. at
http://www.relevantknowledge.com/.
Does Web-wide activity projections based on large panel of users recruited
by random digit dialing. Cooperating panelists download special software
that sends clickstream data to a RelevantKnowledge database in real time
as they surf. Company analyzes data, publishes various kinds of reports.
See press releases for glimpses. E.g., 9/11/98 release estimates
number of unique visitors for month of August to each of the "Top 25 Web
Properties" and to each of the "Top 25 Dot.com Domains" (property
consists of all domains falling under one brand). Quite interesting
numbers. Yahoo heads both lists, with estimated 26 million different visitors
out of an estimated 53.4 million U.S. Web users age 12 or older.
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Netcraft Web Server Survey
at http://www.netcraft.co.uk/survey/.
Counts Web sites, paying special attention to their Web server software.
Estimates 3.2 million Web sites; see graph for the top 4 servers since
mid-95 for some remarkable growth.
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Georgia Tech’s Graphic, Visualization,
& Usability Center's WWW User Survey http://www.cc.gatech.edu/gvu/user_surveys/
User_Survey_Home.html. All results from this semiannual survey freely
available. More than 10,000 Web users (self-selected) answer wide variety
of questions on demographics, technology used, behavior, and opinions.
See section titled "Selected Results and Trend Analysis".
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ActivMedia at http://www.activmedia.com.
Produces many reports of interest on e-commerce, but doesn’t give much
away. Register for free 1-year guest membership and peruse the available
reports.