I answer these questions: How do Alexa, Compete and Quantcast get their stats? How do they rate each other? Which is the largest? Why do Alexa and Quatcast hide their own stats? In my blog here, in case anyone is interested: http://davethetruth.com/internet-marketing/alexa-vs-compete-vs-quantcast What is your opinion on these sites, what's your favorite, do you use them for research, which is your favorite?
They are all fairly inaccurate. Used together they provide an alright estimate. None of the numbers are accurate, but it is still a good way to compare one site to another.
None of the above! To me, these sites are purely for entertainment value, as they provide such inaccurate information that they are practically useless. What use do I get out of them? They can provide a general ballpark for competitive data, but when I say "ballpark" I mean just that. For my sites, compete/quantcast numbers are so far off its not even funny. I sincerely hope my competitors check those sites and think I'm getting that tiny trickle of traffic they report
They are all inaccurate, but if i am going to choose on the three choices, "Compete" is what i prefer.
None of them are accurate, i prefer look at the traffic status fom the site onwer if i buy webite. And I dont bother any of them
They're all garbage. The only analytics worth looking at would be from Google Analytics, Omniture, etc, which of course would be impossible to get from your competitors. According to all of those sites, my websites are getting about 1/6th of the traffic they're really getting.
You're all haters! But seriously, you're all a little off base. Some sites have the analytics code on their website, so they are actual statistics from the site, so for instance, on Quantcast if the traffic is measured with a dotted line then it's an estimate, but if it's a solid line then there is actual data for that site (meaning the site is coded with their analytics).
Alexa is my favorite. I'ts good to use as a basis for how much you are improving over time even though the figures are misleading. It's also fun to check out your competitors agaisnt your own stats.