Top Irish Websites on Alexa

I've just been looking at the 100 most popular websites with Irish internet users, according to Alexa.

Alexa measures the popularity of websites by analysing the information that come from users who have installed the Alexa toolbar. As the Alexa entry on Wikipedia states:

There is some controversy over how representative Alexa's user base is of typical internet behavior.

I would go further and say that people who install the Alexa toolbar are probably unrepresentative of internet users as a group. As a member of Webmasterworld puts it:

It takes a special type of person to install a toolbar. You would need to be on a high speed connection to put up with the extra downloads involved each time you look at a page. You need to have some internet savvy, and be particularly interested in getting detailed "credibility" data for web sites you visit. I believe that this represents a bias away from the casual mainstream user.

Thus, Ryanair.com is not in the top 10 on Alexa's list (it comes in at a lowly 40), which I find hard to believe. Nevertheless, there are some other surprises that prove insightful:

Bebo

Bebo.com, the social networking site, is at number 4. The Sunday Times claimed last year that Bebo had half a million Irish users -- not bad, in a country of 4 million people -- and said it gets 6,000 new Irish users a day. (Google says that "bebo" was the most popular emerging search term of 2006.)

Foreign Sites

Alexa has proof, if proof were needed, of the rapidly-emerging Polish and Chinese communities in Ireland: 6Spark.com, a site for Chinese ex-pats is at number 12, while Onet.pl, Poland's leading portal, is at number 19.

Indeed, 10 Polish sites appear in the Irish top 100, which also features websites from Malaysia, Latvia, Russia and Lithuania.

Homes

The Celtic Tiger generation's obsession with property is reflected in the Alexa listings too, with MyHome.ie appearing at 49 and Daft.ie at 15 -- though the latter is more popular with renters.

Dating

I expected to see dating sites in the Irish top 100. I didn't expect, however, that the only dating site I'd find would be adultfriendfinder.com -- where consenting adults are looking to find other consenting adults for ... adult "friendship", of course. Catholic Ireland, eh?

Travel and Tourism

A surprising number of Irish people look at travel websites such as Ireland.ie and Choose Ireland, which both feature in the top 100.

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