Amazon Retires Alexa – But Not The One You Think
Amazon will retire Alexa. But before you return those electronic devices you bought that come with Amazon’s digital assistant Alexa built-in, this is a different Alexa Amazon is shutting down.
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This week, Amazon posted a message on its Alexa.com website saying it will retire Alexa Internet, the company’s website metrics service it has operated for over 20 years. Alexa Internet was originally launched as an independent company in 1996 and then purchased by Amazon for a reported $250 million in 1999.
“Twenty-five years ago, we founded Alexa Internet. After two decades of helping you find, reach, and convert your digital audience, we’ve made the difficult decision to retire Alexa.com on May 1, 2022. Thank you for making us your go-to resource for content research, competitive analysis, keyword research, and so much more.”
Amazon Statement on Alexa.com
Alexa Rank
One of the more popular free and public products by Alexa Internet was Alexa Rank. It was often used by media outlets in their reporting when discussing the popularity of websites.
But the less traffic a website received, the less accurate the information was Alexa Rank reported. That was always a big criticism of Alexa Rank as it used statistical modeling to determine site popularity.
The primary source of Alexa Internet’s data came from a browser extension users installed. The company also received some real-world data similar to Google Analytics, but only from websites that subscribed to one of its premium plans.
Unlike Google, Alexa never offered a free site traffic tracking tool, which meant Alexa Rank data was based on a mishmash of data sources, that were not equal.
Current Alexa Internet premium subscribers have almost six months to find an alternative solution. Alexa Internet stopped accepting new premium subscribers on December 8 and current subscribers have until May 1, 2022, to export their data.
What, if anything, Amazon plans to do with the Alexa.com domain remains unclear.
But considering how heavily invested the company is in its digital assistant enabled products, it wouldn’t be a surprise if Alexa.com ended up becoming an Amazon product landing page for Alexa products.
For those users who wish to access the free Alexa Rank service until it is gone, the page is no longer accessible from the front page but can be accessed directly by going here.
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Richard Meldner
Richard is co-founder of eSeller365. He has over 17 years of experience on eBay which includes tens of thousands of sales to buyers in over 100 countries and even has experience with eBay’s VeRO program enforcing intellectual property rights for a former employer. And for about two years Richard sold products on Amazon using Amazon FBA in the US.
To “relax” from the daily business grind, for a few weekends a year, he also works for IMSA as a professional race official.