Malaysiakini has been ranked No 6 among the top 50 most visited websites in Malaysia - and placed 11,546 globally - by Internet search engine Alexa.com.

Nanyang Infonet

today reported the main findings of the Alexa 2003 ranking of 350 million websites around the world.

JobStreet.com topped the list of the most popular Malaysian websites with a global ranking of 1,833, followed by jobsdb.com.my (2,231) and thestar.com.my (3,766).

Cari.com.my was ranked seventh (12,159). Its managing director Liew Chew Keat was quoted in the report as saying that most Internet users lean towards entertainment articles.

Although there are different categories in the top websites, Liew said this goes to prove that websites which fulfill user needs have a reason to exist.

The cari.com website, which published the Top 50 list, also had this to say: "The Alexa.com ranking may not be the most accurate way to measure the traffic of a website, However, it is by far the closest measurement for website ranking that can be done on the Net."

Meanwhile, Jobstreet.com CEO Mark Chang told Nanyang Infonet that the site currently serves a base of more than 700,000 Malaysians seeking to find or offer employment.

Malaysiakini , despite being a paid subscriber-only website, ranks above most other online news websites - utusan.com.my (ranked 9), bharian.com.my ( Berita Harian - 13), bernama.com.my (18), emedia.com.my ( New Straits Times - 20), theedgedaily.com (38) and mmail.com.my ( Malay Mail - 42).

Toolbar service

Alexa.com

ranks websites by providing a toolbar which Internet users can download to use - this, in turn, relays information on all the sites visited and enables the ranking process.

As of today there are over 10 million Alexa toolbar users, while the database is updated every second.

The use of Alexa.com services - a company owned by Amazon.com - is catching on quickly with the Internet population - its search engine is a powerful tool for viewing and comparing website traffic.

It also has data services and webmaster services designed to improve web navigation through participation of users.