Using Web Networks for Marketing
The network of web pages is enormous. Near-infinite. Countless websites are chained together by links that direct users from one page to a similar page. An individual page links its users to another page with some kind of information or functionality that the user presumably wants to access. As pages become more or less popular, this global network and its links shift to show these changes.
Alexa.com provides users with information on a specified website: popularity, rankings, average time on site, user demographics, traffic, search terms and websites that led users to the site, and related websites. Statistics like these not only help monitor the network from the viewpoint of a single node, but they also give valuable information to advertisers and marketers about who is viewing what websites, when, how long, and from where. With this information, advertisers can more efficiently and effectively direct advertisements. These advertisers use the network’s connections and relationships to direct their businesses.
http://www.alexa.com/siteinfo/cornell.edu