I've been wondering about this, and tought I'd ask here. MSN.com is listed in alexa.com as the third most visited site in the internet. However, I think this is biased. Let me explain. Since every user with a hotmail.com account goes to msn.com after closing his/her session, they count as hits for msn. they probably don't even look at the site but that causes a lot of traffic. So my conclusion is that msn is third only because of hotmail.com, and not because user really want to visit that site. What do you think?
Hotmail's probably not even the greatest factor... every new computer ships with IE, which defaults to the MSN homepage.
I would echo that MSN as the start page on IE is more likely an influence. But you have to remember that Alexa is not widely distributed and is not completely representative of the Internet popular (not even remotely in fact). It's results are only as accurate as its distribution (which isn't that great). That said, its still a indication that ranks a bit better than merely guess and probably a bit more affordable than the $$$$ that various reports cost which actually capture traffic at the NAP level (much more accurate).
You are completely right, I consider alexa only as a reference. My question is more about where is msn.com receveing all this traffic and if people is really going to that site because they want to or just because they are being directed there
I hand't considered the IE relation (that happens when you don't think things through). So, could we say that MSN is not really popular as Yahoo and Google, but people are being directed there by different means? The conclusion would be that IE is the mother of all adwares!
Are there really people who don't know how to change their start page? Scary thought, but probably true that there are a lot of them. As far as MSN search goes, I'm sure it gets traffic from people typing search terms in the IE address bar, which does an MSN search. That's not to say it's showing as more popular than it is, just that it gets popularity via user ignorance.
That's exactly what it is. Most of the people I know are non-technical and have MSN as their start page in IE. IE had a huge lead in the search market due to this. That fact that their reach in s earch is shrink is a testamanet to how far ahead google is in technology and how how far ahead google and yahoo are ahead in PR.
I guess the idea of inXorable at http://forums.digitalpoint.com/showthread.php?t=84050 is then worth a try if it works for msn. Thanks to all for clarifying this for me.
I haven’t changed it yet, why should I bother. Many people like me only use IE when site aren’t compatible with Opera or FF and when building a site to see how a it looks in all browsers. I hardly ever use IE therefore not really bothered to change the Homepage.
ya there is a reason behind that because every other PC has windows on it and by default the explorer is set to msn.com so thats another factor that msn gets some free search traffic !
yes true prolly its cuz of hotmail Msn defaul homepage /and search but there are lot of users tht use msn not just cuz of deault homepage and hotmail.
How can this be the reason??? Default page or not, new computers do not come with Alexa toolbar. Only IE with alexa toolbar can count towards the traffic that alexa measures. And newbies that do not change their home page to the website they like, most certalny don't have alexa toolbar installed
I somehow suspect that Microsoft doesn't care how you get there, just that you're there. Other partnerships such as those with ISP's like sympatico also help. Even I've on occasion clicked through a story that caught my eye through my occasional hotmail login. It may not be the most targetted traffic but its traffic and it seems to be working for them.
I don't know, personally i really like msn's search engine and use it i make good revenue from it because of the teenagers using it and google adsense intergrated into the site and they clicking the ads so i think msn is a busy site specially because of hotmail.com