Audience Profiles

Last week I ran into an interesting gadget hosted by Quantcast.com: chess.about.com - Web Site Audience Profiles from Quantcast. It estimates the number of visitors that sites receive and calculates visitor profiles.

The description of chess.about.com (aka About Chess) reads, 'This destination reaches approximately 33,435 U.S. monthly uniques. The destination appeals to a more educated, slightly male slanted following. The typical visitor plays games on playtoad.com, visits mobygames.com, and buys from msdn.com.' The 'Audience Composition' is 75% 'Passers-By' and 25% 'Regulars', where the 'Regulars' account for 44% of total visits.

Twenty other sites are listed under 'Similar Audience', of which 18 are immediately recognizable as chess sites, the exceptions being eudesign.com and dwheeler.com. Clicking on 'Find reports' at the top of the page returns the same list of '20 websites with similar audiences to Chess.about.com' along with the site's description. Some examples are:

• 'Chessville.com US Reach: 9,030 Not Quantified No Advertising This site reaches approximately 9,030 U.S. monthly uniques. The site attracts a primarily older, heavily male crowd.'
  
  
• 'Chesscafe.com US Reach: 9,062 Not Quantified No Advertising This site reaches approximately 9,062 U.S. monthly uniques. The site is popular among a mostly male, 60-100k HH income bracket, mostly Caucasian, primarily older audience.'
  
  
• 'Uschess.org US Reach: 35,027 Not Quantified Accepts Advertising This site reaches approximately 35,027 U.S. monthly uniques. The site appeals to a primarily male, more educated group.'
  

Compared to other statistical info I know about the site, some of Quantcast.com's stats are accurate, some aren't. Take it only with a grain of salt and don't forget that there is more to the Web than 'U.S. monthly uniques'!