RPM Information Network: GIS
Web Site Domain Ratings, February 2000

Site	Visits	Performance	Links In	Info	Graphics	Gadgets	Colors	Frames	CoolQ	Ads	Document Structure	Table Structure	Form Structure	Image Tags
Lycos Maps	Top 25	Fast	33,477	76.9	21.0	2.0	23.0	0.0	14.3	12.0	39	2	1	5
Map Quest	Top 100	Fast	159,181	53.2	41.0	0.0	49.0	0.0	81.2	1.0	0	1	0	16
Map Blast (Vicinity Corp)	Top 500	Very Good	65,986	100.0	8.0	4.0	3.0	0.0	100.0	1.0	0	0	1	5
TerraServer*	Top 500	Fast	4,818	70.8	42.6	4.0	33.3	0.0	6.3	1.0	1	0	2	5
National Geographic MapMachine	Top 1,000	Average	671	93.2	46.0	1.0	27.0	0.0	11.8	1.0	0	1	0	38
Autodesk: Map Guide	Top 2,500	Very Good	1,037	61.8	63.6	9.0	48.0	0.0	47.8	0.0	2	1	0	5
US Census Bureau	Top 2,500	Fast	97,256	79.1	41.0	0.0	12.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	1	0	0	28
Big Book	Top 5,000	N/A	1,397	43.0	8.0	0.0	20.5	0.0	0.0	1.0	7	2	6	27
ESRI	Top 7,500	Very Good	18,230	77.4	5.2	1.0	8.7	0.0	3.4	0.0	0	1	0	4
Intergraph	Top 10,000	Very Good	18,972	91.1	2.3	1.0	6.3	0.0	0.0	0.0	1	0	1	2
AGI GIS Dictionary (University Of Edinburgh)	Top 25,000	Slow	540	88.4	6.5	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0	0	0	13
Bentley	Top 25,000	Very Good	8,156	83.9	11.7	1.0	1.7	0.0	0.0	0.0	7	0	0	10
MapInfo	Top 25,000	Average	4,089	57.9	43.9	10.6	30.0	2.0	19.2	1.0	1	0	1	26
Sol Katz Metadata (BLM)	Top 25,000	Very Good	817	96.0	1.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	3.2	0.0	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A
USGS	Top 25,000	Very Good	74,615	38.5	36.0	1.0	8.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0	0	0	30
Xerox PARC Map Server	Top 50,000	Average	2,501	61.7	4.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	1	0	0	9
Etak	Top 50,000	Average	1,474	93.5	4.3	0.0	9.3	0.0	0.0	0.0	2	0	0	12
DeLorme Cyber Maps	Top 75,000	Average	187	83.7	8.5	0.5	10.0	0.0	22.2	0.0	2	2	0	4
Penn State Map Room (DCW)	Top 75,000	Slow	207	95.2	4.0	0.2	1.5	0.0	0.0	0.0	2	0	0	28
Directions Magazine	Top 100,000	Slow	158	76.2	59.5	1.0	53.0	0.0	9.8	3.0	25	0	0	40
GIS Data Depot	Top 100,000	Very Good	330	58.9	11.0	1.0	39.3	0.0	0.0	5.0	6	1	3	14
GIS World	Top 100,000	Very Good	1,751	70.5	10.5	1.0	12.9	0.0	4.0	3.4	2	4	1	16
AI Geostats	All Other	Slow	121	91.4	2.6	0	1	0	4.5	0	0	0	17	N/A
Applied Geographic Solutions	All Other	N/A	52	88.7	8.3	0.0	3.9	0.0	3.6	0.0	0	0	0	9
Caliper	All Other	Very Good	343	94.6	16.2	1.0	14.9	0.0	1.3	0.0	0	0	0	10
Claritas	All Other	Slow	262	100.0	16.0	1.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0	0	0	0
GDT	All Other	Average	318	74.2	25.7	2.9	2.7	0.0	3.3	0.0	6	2	0	1
GIS Linx	All Other	Slow	526	64.8	7.0	1.0	71.0	0.0	11.0	0.0	9	7	1	7
Great GIS Net Sites	All Other	Slow	1,210	64.4	29.5	0.0	5.5	0.0	15.6	0.0	0	0	0	3
MapData Online	All Other	Slow	81	92.9	5.8	0.2	7.7	0.0	3.6	0.0	2	0	0	0
Master Environmental Library (MEL)	All Other	N/A	311	94.6	13.0	1.0	12.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	3	1	0	6
National Decision Systems	All Other	Slow	119	100.0	3.0	0.0	1.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0	0	0	3
Qualitative Marketing Software	All Other	Average	103	97.0	24.8	0.4	6.4	0.0	2.2	0.0	8	2	0	83
Roelof Oddens's Bookmarks (Utrecht University)	All Other	Average	233	84.1	5.3	3.3	1.0	2.0	0.0	0.0	0	0	0	0
RPM Information Network	All Other	Slow	147	83.3	9.0	3.0	0.0	0.0	16.7	0.0	0	0	0	0
Scan US	All Other	Average	116	89.4	14.1	1.0	3.4	0.0	7.3	0.0	9	0	1	6

September, 1998
October, 1998
November, 1998
December, 1998
January, 1999
April, 1999
July, 1999
October, 1999

Above are the ratings of some of the major GIS and mapping related websites for February, 2000. Note that beginning in 1999 we no longer attempt to count the number of pages residing on a site, since so many pages are now being dynamically created from databases. We have also changed the traffic designations again, back to "Top 10", "Top 100" etc. as those ratings proved to be more clear than "Top Of The Web", "Top Of The Category", etc. Another consideration is that the most popular sites may indeed be less popular than they look, because the cache-count methodology tends to overstate these, while at the same time the publisher may actually show a lower hit count on its own web stats due to the caches. Some of these sites, like ESRI, are map and GIS centered; others, like Lycos Maps or even Microsoft Terra Server, prominently serve maps or feature other GIS or mapping-related content. The statistics are derived using web, network and server diagnostic tools. Visits reflects how a site rates among all sites on the Web with reference to the number of unique visits. This is based on hit counts recorded from various caches on the Internet backbone. Performance refers to the average amount of time it takes to display a page, with "Fast" equating to transfer rates of 50Kbps or higher; "Average" at about the speed of a 28.8 or 33.6 dial-up modem, and "Slow" reflecting transfer speeds of a 14.4 dial-up modem or below. The speed ratings are compiled based on a periodic archival update of the Web. Links In reflects how many other sites are linking in to a domain, which reflects how valuable its resources are considered to be by peer and related sites, portals, etc. The Freshness measure has been discontinued for February 2000.

Beginning in July 1999, we added a number of new measurements suggested by Lincoln Stein of the Cold Spring Harbor Labs. These measurements are based more on sites than merely home pages. Info measures information content vs. links, with higher scores indicating more content oriented sites, and lower scores indicating content that may take some "drilling down" to get to, or simply that content may be relatively thin. It is NOT an editorial opinion about the quality of content. Graphics represents a graphics per page index. Similarly, Gadgets refers to the number of applets and controls per page. Colors refers to what Lincoln Stein calls the TFI or Tutti Frutti Index, how colorful a site is. Frames is exactly what you would imagine, the count of frame tags. The CoolQ or Cool Quotient measures hype, in the form of an index that compares the number of exclamation points, superlatives and other hyperbole per page. Ads refers to the number of ads per page.

Beginning with the February 2000 update, we are now tracking several other form elements of the websites. Document Structure is the count of errors concerning tag placement, Table Structure is the count of table structure errors, including table tags, Form Structure is the count of errors on forms, and Image Structure is the count of image syntax errors, predominantly failure to set ALT, WIDTH and HEIGHT paramaters.

These ratings are now updated quarterly, or when significant changes are recorded, so do come on back and see us. If you have a site you'd like us to rate, just let us know.

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