Sparky: Alexa comes to the Firefox browser

This was just released yesterday, I think. Alexa has finally released its official toolbar for the Firefox browser, called Sparky.

Alexa Firefox

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.

Abe Olandres

Abe is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of YugaTech with over 20 years of experience in the technology industry. He is one of the pioneers of blogging in the country and considered by many as the Father of Tech Blogging in the Philippines. He is also a technology consultant, a tech columnist with several national publications, resource speaker and mentor/advisor to several start-up companies.

https://www.yugatech.com

6 Comments

Greg Moreno says:

17 years ago

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.
- Reply
marhgil says:

17 years ago

It was not released yesterday. I installed it 2 days ago after reading about it onMisteryosa.
- Reply
Miguel says:

17 years ago

Cool, maybe I’ll try it on my other browser. I’m using Compete on this one.
- Reply
Abe Olandres says:

17 years ago

Migs, you can use SearchStatus extension with Firefox. It shows you Alexa + Compete stats.
- Reply
Eugene says:

17 years ago

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.
- Reply
macewan says:

17 years ago

I works beautifully under Ubuntu Linux on Firefox. Not a single problem noted yet.
- Reply