This was just released yesterday, I think. Alexa has finally released its official toolbar for the Firefox browser, called Sparky.
Unlike in Internet Explorer, the Alexa toolbar for Firefox will be added at the bottom of the browser, right side of the status bar. By default, it shows a rank of the domain/site you are currently browsing and a small graphical trend in the last 4 months.
Note: Alexa toolbar is often flagged by anti-spywares and anti-virus softwares as spyware. It’s primarily because the toolbar sends usage data/information back to Alexa (phone home).
In any case, this will increase the relevance of the Alexa rankings as it now covers more browser species.
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The small graphical trend is called a sparkline - a brainchild of data visualization guru Edward Tufte. The sparkline provides a bare-bone and space-efficient time-series context of what is being measured. The cool thing about sparklines is that the ups and downs are instantly available and the user can easily compare the current measure with its history.
It was not released yesterday. I installed it 2 days ago after reading about it onMisteryosa.
Cool, maybe I’ll try it on my other browser. I’m using Compete on this one.
Migs, you can use SearchStatus extension with Firefox. It shows you Alexa + Compete stats.
The privacy policy is scary:
ALEXA’S TOOLBAR SERVICE COLLECTS AND STORES INFORMATION ABOUT THE WEB PAGES YOU VIEW, THE DATA YOU ENTER IN ONLINE FORMS AND SEARCH FIELDS, AND, WITH VERSIONS 5.0 AND HIGHER, THE PRODUCTS YOU PURCHASE ONLINE WHILE USING THE TOOLBAR SERVICE.
Why collect and store what I type? I thought Alexa only counted traffic? This dissuaded me from installing this toolbar/plug-in.
I works beautifully under Ubuntu Linux on Firefox. Not a single problem noted yet.