Compete.com

Defunct American website

Compete.com

Type of business	Subsidiary
Type of site	Web traffic and ranking
Available in	English
Founded	2000; 24 years ago (2000)
Headquarters	Boston, Massachusetts United States
Area served	U.S. Internet Users
Owner	TNS (WPP)
Founder(s)	Bill Gross, David Cancel
Industry	Online Competitive Intelligence (Web Analytics/Market Research)
Products	Compete Site Analytics (free), Compete PRO Intro, Compete PRO Standard, Compete PRO Advanced
Services	Site Profile, Search Analytics, Incoming and Outgoing Traffic, Ranked Lists, Category Profile, Compete Blog
URL	www.compete.com
Current status	Site shut down

Compete.com was a web traffic analysis service. The company was founded in 2000 and ceased operations in December 2016.

Services

Compete.com provided two categories of information:

Site Analytics

a free service, where the user can enter any domain name and receive unique visitors and Compete Rank for the entered site.

Search Analytics

a paid service that shows the user which keywords are sending traffic to the user's website and its competitors.^[1]

Compete's panel measures U.S., but not international users. Compete has worked diligently to develop what it believes is the largest and most diverse panel of online consumers in the United States.^[2]

Compete Toolbar

The Compete Toolbar allowed users to view the Compete Trust Scores and the US Internet ranks of websites they visit. This was done by sending the URLs that users visit to Compete.com. Compete.com then sent back the trust scores and internet ranks from its database to the users.

Additionally, users of the Compete Toolbar had the option of participating in Community Share. By participating in Community Share, users were assigned a user number, and that number will be submitted along with the URLs of the websites that these users visit. This information was used to roughly determine how many users visit each website.

Although no personally identifiable information was submitted to Compete.com,^[3] the server received the originating IP address.

History

Compete.com was launched in 2000 by Bill Gross, an entrepreneur who started the search engine GoTo.com (later Overture).^[4] In March 2008, London market research company TNS purchased Compete.com for $150 million.^[5] The Compete.com service ceased activity on December 31, 2016.^[6]

References

^ McGill University CMIS 530 Web Analytics Blog Web Analytics blog Archived 2013-01-27 at the Wayback Machine
^ Granville, Vincent (February 9, 2012). "analyticbridge.com". analyticbridge.com. Retrieved May 1, 2013.
^ What can we help you with? Archived 2008-05-02 at the Wayback Machine compete.com
^ "Compete: FAQ". Archived from the original on May 2, 2008. Retrieved April 19, 2008.
^ Zacks, Rebecca (March 3, 2008). "Xconomy: Boston's Compete Bought by UK Market Research Firm for Up to $150 Million". Xconomy. Retrieved February 23, 2019.
^ "Measuring digital performance for 15 years | PRO". Compete.com. December 29, 2016. Archived from the original on December 29, 2016. Retrieved February 23, 2019.