Christopher Finke, the creator of URL Fixer, a browser add-on that fixes typos and generally smartens up the address bar, has been collecting anonymous usage data from the people who use his add-on for about six months now. As a result, he’s amassed 7.5 million inputs, a respectable sample size, and used them to come up with some statistics that he posted on his blog, where he writes about things he has done. He brings some interesting information to the table, and while it may not be pratically applicable in any way, it certainly is fun to read and then spit back at your friends.
Here’s a few little highlights you might be interested to know.
- As shown above, the top 10 URLs account for 20% of all typed domains, and Facebook accounts for 9% on its own, 3 times more than runner-up Google
- Faceboook.com is the scammiest typo URL (you’re a Facebook winner!), but is only typed once for every 7,930 correct spellings
- The most common top-level domain (.com, .org, etc.) is .com with a whopping 63% to runner-up .org’s 4%
- The top 17 TLD typos are all variations of .com
Popularity of top-level domains by percentage.
Length of domains in characters vs. hits in millions. Guess who you can thank for the spike at 12.
Hits in millions vs. letters the domains start with. Again, note the spikes at F and G.
Percentage of users that type the “www” in a URL.
To read more about the process and check out a more extensive breakdown of these numbers and what they might mean, check out the article on Christopher Finke’s blog.
(Less Talk, More Do via Techmeme)
