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What is SimilarWeb and how do they know that? Because I have a hunch that they are pulling the numbers out of their asses just so they are mentioned in articles
by jdkjs 5y ago
What is SimilarWeb and how do they know that? Because I have a hunch that they are pulling the numbers out of their asses just so they are mentioned in articles from shitty blogs like this one.
- PaywallBuster 5y agoThey own a number of popular browser extensions which feed them data and provide them a good "sample" of web traffic It can be surprisingly close
- altdataseller 5y agoThey have a bunch of Chrome extensions that spy on what users are visiting online, and use that data to sell their product to marketers. Personally think Google should get rid of them as they are a travesty to online privacy.
- odshoifsdhfs 5y agoSo google should also ban themselves? At least the Chrome extensions people installed themselves, can't say the same about Google fonts/analytics/whatever else
- altdataseller 5y agoApples and oranges, You install Google Analytics precisely to track where users are going. You don’t install a Google Chrome extension so a company can track every site you are visiting.
- harrybr 5y agoSo they’re estimating based on a sample that may not represent the population of Spotify subscribers. The only people who know the real figures are Spotify themselves. It would be interesting to know the names of these chrome extensions and whether the sign up experience clearly communicates the ways in which the users will be tracked.
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- TameAntelope 5y agoIs it a travesty to online privacy if you have to opt into their tracking? At some point I should be allowed to trade my personal information in exchange for goods or services, isn't that the whole point of me "owning" my information?
- bmarquez 5y agoI'd like to know what these Chrome extensions are to ensure they'll never be installed on any computer I use. Unfortunately I can't find a list anywhere, which seems really scammy.
- voisin 5y ago> Personally think Google should get rid of them as they are a travesty to online privacy. More likely that Google would buy them.
- evanelias 5y agofwiw I have seen situations where their numbers were completely detached from reality, in absolute terms as well as relative comparisons over time. They're especially inaccurate for any product with mobile apps, since they have zero insight into that traffic. Nor do they properly extrapolate between the massively different traffic patterns of users with apps (which tends to be a lot stickier) vs web traffic. Several times, people citing SimilarWeb numbers have argued with me about things where I had first-hand direct knowledge of the correct numbers (e.g., numbers involving a company I worked for). It's frustrating. These people sided with SimilarWeb because it's some source they can cite, nevermind the fact that it was complete garbage in these cases.