Transparency and Analytics

October 31, 2007

As I was reading the post Ten Questions with Compete on Guy Kawasaki’s blog, I was reminded of a recent conversation I had on StartupNation with a designer named Paula about what kind of site information is proprietary, and if website traffic data should be considered proprietary information.

To get to the point, Compete collects information from web users and gives it away for free. It basically estimates the traffic information for comparative purposes in a more detailed fashion than Alexa, and displays this information for free on its website. But why should we go through the trouble? Why not give away the actual data as well?

For example, a lot of people use Google’s free analytics service. What if Google started compiling all that data and offering it up Alexa/Compete-style? Then these types of comparisons could be made with real-world data, not just data created using statistics and samples. Personally, I wouldn’t mind if my real Google data was used in this way. The benefits of such a system could include:

Making the data available to other sites and startups for real-world traffic estimation.
Letting advertisers research your traffic and visitor profiles to decide if they want to purchase advertising space.
Giving advertisers accurate comparisons to assess fair CPM rates.
Insuring investors as to the health of the company.
Creating an open dialogue and truthful communication in the internet community—how refreshing!

What do I have to hide? But maybe I am missing something here and there is some benefit to protecting that kind of data—something other than covering up your failures from your investors and your advertisers, of course. So what do my readers say on this? Would you mind if your real data was being served up Alexa style? Or do you consider that information to be proprietary, so it should be kept protected? What are the pros and cons of making such information available to all?

For anyone interested in the Compete service, I found it very cool—but you can try their free Site Analytics for yourself.

Filed Under Business, Technology and Websites
Tagged: alexa, analytics, compete, google, small business, traffic, transparency, website