# Alexa Toolbar and the Problem of Experiment Design

DevFeed: [Alexa Toolbar and the Problem of Experiment Design](<https://devfeed.tech/articles/alexa-toolbar-and-the-problem-of-experiment-design-40574.md>)

Original publisher: [Read original article](<http://norvig.com/logs-alexa.html>)

Published: 2007-01-08T00:00:00Z

Content type: article

Language: en

Sources: [Peter Norvig](<https://devfeed.tech/sources/peter-norvig.md>)

Topics: [Statistics](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/statistics.md>), [Internet](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/internet.md>), [trust](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/trust.md>), [data](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/data.md>), [Search engine optimization (SEO)](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/seo.md>)

Tags: [alexa](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/alexa.md>), [amazon](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/amazon.md>), [bias](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/bias.md>), [https](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/https.md>), [internet](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/internet.md>), [logs](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/logs.md>), [party](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/party.md>), [ranking](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/ranking.md>), [search-engine-optimization](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/search-engine-optimization.md>), [seo](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/seo.md>), [statistics](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/statistics.md>), [trust](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/trust.md>)

## AI overview

The article examines whether Alexa traffic rankings accurately represent internet usage. It argues that the rankings are affected by selection bias because they measure users who installed the Alexa toolbar, a group that may be disproportionately interested in SEO, and illustrates the concern with comparisons between site logs and Alexa rankings.

## Source excerpt

Can you trust statistics about internet usage?