Is there a site or instrument that that tracks internet traffic?

[Smarmie Doofus]

In other words... similar to Arbitron Ratings or Nielson (for tv; are they still around).

In still other words... I'd like to compare the volume of traffic on one website with the volume of traffic on a similar ( you might say "competing" site.)

How does one come by that info?

[Denzil_DC]

1. There are a few

Some of them rely on users having a toolbar or other tracking tool installed. Their reliability is variable, but they're usually OK for a rough comparison.

Here's some (low-traffic sites will usually have limited data available, if any):

http://www.quantcast.com/ (to be at all accurate, the sites need to be "Quantified)

http://www.alexa.com/ (relies on visitors installing the Alexa Toolbar, extrapolates data from those numbers)

These two will give you data from a number of different estimators:

http://www.compete.com/us/

http://www.attentionmeter.com/

And if you're only talking about blogs, the big daddy:

http://technorati.com/

[madrchsod]

2. i have alexa on my toolbar....

right now democratic underground is 1119 us traffic rank.

[muriel_volestrangler]

3. Plus this one:

http://www.semrush.com/

I found an article comparing sites like this, and it thought 'SEMrush' was good (for the free data, and better for people who pay for the advanced info).

[KurtNYC]

4. great list

[Smarmie Doofus]

5. Thanks, Denzil. It's all "Greek" to me at this point but I'll play around w. 'em. n/t