How is this data collected? What is Alexa? How can I get this info for my favorite site?

Alexa provides the Internet with what Nielsen Media Research provides the TV market with their famous TV ratings.

The Nielsen TV Ratings are based on a sampling of TV viewers. These people are called "Nielsen Families." Their TV watching is monitored and metered to provide us with the Nielsen TV Ratings.

Alexa also has something similar. They have a community of users who use their free toolbar. By using the toolbar the users allow information to be returned to Alexa. With this information Alexa is able to calculate traffic rankings, related links and much more.

We at BananaForce have been using the Alexa toolbar for sometime now and have really enjoyed the benefits. The toolbar has a search box that actually returns Google results with the addition of Alexa information. The toolbar also lets you know the traffic rank of the site you are currently visiting plus related links. Best of all, the toolbar stops pop-ups! Yee-Haw!