Amazon shutting down Alexa.com

[AGTDenton]

To avoid confusion from the get go, they're not discontinuing the Alexa devices.

https://www.techhive.com/article/364...alexa-com.html

End of Service Notice
Twenty five years ago we founded Alexa Internet. After more than two decades of helping you find, reach, and convert your digital audience, we will be retiring Alexa.com on May 1, 2022. Thank you for making us your go-to resource for content research, competitive analysis, keyword research, and so much more.

I can't help think that this is because Alexa (the devices) need a higher quality method of sniffing and gathering data, web crawling & toolbars are now a bit old hat.

Some report that Alexa . com and Alexa devices are unrelated, but my belief is that for a while Alexa . com was one of the primary sources of information for their devices & A.I. learning and are very much related. It's just now they need to sniff other more popular forms of content, such as streaming & listening in to what you're actually saying and doing in the home.

How can we forget the adware & toolbars that they used to throw at us:

[Output]

My guess is that they want to repurpose the domain to be purely about the devices, especially including pointing towards where they can be bought. It just seems like the obvious choice.

Alexa rankings were seen as an important indicator in the past, but that hasn't been the case any longer for at least a decade I'd imagine, considering the toolbar requirement of it.

[ik9000]

I never knew there was a toolbar or website.

[AGTDenton]

I never knew there was a toolbar or website.

This is actually surprising me how many people didn't know about it, I've seen a few comments like this.

Two main reasons I was exposed to it.
Firstly when removing peoples adware, back when spyware/adware was rampant and would take over the whole PC with popups etc...
Secondly in my early days of web design, it was generally considered unsafe to have alexa crawling around your website, so you'd block them in the robots.txt file on your website.

My guess is that they want to repurpose the domain to be purely about the devices, especially including pointing towards where they can be bought. It just seems like the obvious choice.

Alexa rankings were seen as an important indicator in the past, but that hasn't been the case any longer for at least a decade I'd imagine, considering the toolbar requirement of it.

Yes they'll probably turn it into some sort of portal to control your devices.

[Smudger]

I never did meet any sexy singles...

[Austin90]

Okay, that picture is the stuff of horrors quite frankly. I am shaking right now. Bonzi in the corner especially...

[ik9000]

Okay, that picture is the stuff of horrors quite frankly. I am shaking right now. Bonzi in the corner especially...

It's missing the ICQ and Yahoo toolbars. I definitely had those back in the day before MSN messenger came out. Then there is the pox of the Ask Jeeves toolbar that got bundled into every installer of freeware to make it adware/malware depending on your point of view.

[Austin90]

Oh god yeah, the Yahoo toolbars. Honestly, those were such a staple that I just sort of assumed it was in there somewhere and didn't even bother looking for it!