Alexa toolbar – Something worth looking into

I’ve recently added a link to the Alexa Toolbar on my site. I’ve been playing with it quite a bit over the last week, and I encourage you to give it a try. It adds a toolbar to your browser (assuming you’re using Internet Explorer and Windows).

Here are some of my observations:

Good things about the Alexa toolbar:

• It’s free.
• It downloads in under a minute, even for modem users.
• It offers cool features… including search options for google, Websters, and more. I find the “similar sites” feature to be often fun and useful. I also like the one-click access to the WayBack Machine (cached views of that Web page from months or years ago!)
• It’s easy to uninstall if you don’t like it.
• If you shop at amazon.com via the toolbar links, I get a commission 🙂

Things that perhaps aren’t so good:

• There are privacy implications. I don’t personally find these troublesome, but some might.
• Some of the info is dated. Bringing up SmileZone.com with the toolbar shows a two-week-old picture. My registrar-based home address info is months out of date.
• On google-based search results, Amazon.com products are shown on the right-hand side. Some may find this useful, others may feel it’s annoying. I’m undecided. And some of the results are just way out there! Microsoft programming tools for the search “Lindy Hop”?!

Anyway, give it a try and let me know what you think. And if you find it worth using, please do share this URL with your friends:

http://www.smilezone.com/alexa

Thanks!