Alexa dot Con
Respected Source of Data on Website Traffic Shows Kucinich
Site in Close 3-Way Contest for Lead, But Same Company
Excludes Kucinich Site from its Reporting on Campaign Sites
For Immediate Release: December 5, 2003
 
Alexa.com, a leading internet company that serves as a source of information on the strength of websites' activity, is deliberately excluding from its reporting the Kucinich website, despite the fact that, according to Alexa.com's own numbers, the Kucinich site receives more traffic than do several of the other sites that Alexa reports on.  This is not an accidental omission.  The Kucinich campaign has repeatedly called the matter to the attention of Alexa.com and its parent company, Amazon.com.
 
Alexa.com is often cited in media reports as an index of which campaigns appear to have popular support, as in these stories from the Boston Globe and the San Francisco Chronicle: http://www.boston.com/news/politics/president/articles/2003/11/04/clark_claims_to_be_the_big_hit_online/
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2003/09/17/MN87856.DTL
 
The Kucinich for President website at www.kucinich.us receives considerably more traffic than do those for President George Bush, Senator John Kerry, Senator John Edwards, Senator Joe Lieberman, Congressman Dick Gephardt, Ambassador Carol Mosley Braun, or Reverend Al Sharpton.  The Kucinich site is in third place and in a close battle for the lead with the sites of General Wesley Clark and Governor Howard Dean.  This is based on the rankings that can be found on Alexa.com at  http://www.alexa.com/data/details/traffic_details?q=&url=http://www.kucinich.us/
 
Alexa also has a page comparing the presidential campaign sites.  This page is prominently linked at the top of the main Alexa.com page at www.alexa.com .  It excludes any data on the Kucinich site, and does  not even include the Kucinich site in its list of sites.  It does include several campaign sites with lower rankings, including Senator Hillary Clinton's despite her not being a candidate.  The data on the Kucinich site provided above is much more difficult to locate on Alexa's site.
 
Kucinich supporters have complained about this to Alexa for weeks with no results.  Alexa told the Kucinich campaign on December 1st that it would correct this page.  The Kucinich campaign contacted both Alexa and its parent company, Amazon.com, on December 4 to again request the correction.  This page, which apparently excludes Kucinich as a matter of official policy, is at
http://pages.alexa.com/features/candidates.html
 
The Kucinich campaign has redesigned its website and provided faster loading pages, and has added many popular new features in the past weeks, including areas for supporters to post their reasons for joining the campaign; an area for supporters to post their opinions on NAFTA; a photo gallery; an audio gallery; a video gallery; an opportunity to purchase Kucinich's book or to purchase videos; a page of free holiday E-cards to send to friends and family; a place to sign up to travel to Iowa or New Hampshire; and what the campaign calls Reality-Based Fundraising, i.e. opportunities to contribute money to specific projects, including billboards, yard signs, and interns.  The site is updated almost every day with statements from the candidate, and also includes a popular discussion forum where supporters' conversations are guided by a fulltime staff person with the title Virtual Outreach Coordinator.  The Kucinich campaign, unlike others, has purchased no advertisements on the internet.
 
Webmaster Karen Kilroy and Virtual Outreach Coordinator Claudia Slate are available to comment on this success.
 
For more information: http://www.kucinich.us
 
For Rep. Kucinich's Schedule: http://www.kucinich.us/schedule.htm
 
Contact: David Swanson