Harvard's Web Site Ranks Sixth

In a recent survey by an Internet sampling company, Harvard University's Web site was ranked sixth by total Web users--five spots behind Massachusetts Institute of Technology's site, which took first.

According to RelevantKnowledge, the company that compiled the rankings, about 1.9 million different Web users visited the MIT Web site in May, while about 1.1 million people visited Harvard's site.

Harvard still outdistanced its Ivy League brethren--Columbia was eleventh, the University of Pennsylvania was sixteenth and Cornell was nineteenth. Stanford was seventh with an estimated I million Web visitors.

Tied for second with 1.8 million visitors were the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and the University of Michigan. The University of Washington and the University of Texas at Austin were tied for fourth with 1.3 million visitors.

RelevantKnowledge compiles information about Web site usage using a process similar to Nielsen rating, said Robert J. Ward, a sales executive for the company.

About 6,100 people, chosen to represent demographic diversity, are monitored for their Web activity. The company then extrapolates information about the general population, Ward said.

Director of FAS Computer Services Franklin M. Steen said he was pleased with Harvard's finish and was not surprised other universities had more visitors to their Web site.

The universities that outranked Harvard are mostly public universities with more students--and would naturally draw larger amounts of people, Steen said.

While MIT is not a public university, it serves a scientific community that may be more likely to get information from the Internet, he said.

"I think it's very interesting that we're just a little bit behind those," he said. "I guess it's about where I would expect."

Steen said Harvard may have been ranked as high as sixth because of curiosity about what he called the nation's "number one university."

"I think people want to see what's going on at Harvard," he said.

In addition to resources such as Hollis, the Web site is an excellent source of information about Harvard, especially for prospective applicants, Steen said.

"The 'Net's becoming a very useful medium and I would imagine that many kids looking for a school to go to would use the Web to research the school," he said.

Harvard's Web pages have seen great change over the past year, Steen said. In the past year, the University has redone its Web site and added a new Harvard College Web site.

"Harvard was never known for having beautiful pages," Steen said.

Since the study only tabulated users for the month of May, periodic fluctuations in use may have affected the results, Ward said.

"Just like a TV show, just because someone watches Home Improvement, it doesn't mean that show will be the leader two weeks later," he said.

In addition to statistics about the number of unique visitors to Harvard's Web site, RelevantKnowledge obtained information about the demographics of the visitors concerning age, gender, houselhold size, region, place of access, education and professional status, Ward said.

This information comes with a price--about $1000, Ward said.

Robert J. Sales, associate director of the MIT News Office, said MIT was pleased with the rankings.

"It shows that the Web site is relevant to the [MIT] community and it gives Harvard something to strive for," Sales said.