A Comparison of SemiWiki and DeepChip

An email update from John Cooley at DeepChip this morning prompted the bloggers here at SemiWiki to continue the discussion and point out incorrect data, so that readers realize what is really happening with our media portals as sources of timely and relevant news and opinion. I respect what John Cooley has done with DeepChip over the decades, but let’s talk about the arcane numbers of online publications a bit.

Here’s a comparison chart to set the record straight between SemiWiki and DeepChip:

[table] width=”500″ style=”width: 500px”
|-
| Criteria
| SemiWiki
| DeepChip
| Comparison
|-
| Pageviews
| 253,327
| 114,088
| Over 2X in favor of SemiWiki (last 30 days). DeepChip (May 2012).
|-
| Unique visitors/mo.
| 41,250
| 45,488
| 9% advantage for DeepChip.
|-
| Started
| 2011
| 1991
| In under 2 years SemiWiki overtook DeepChip in number of Pageviews.
|-
| Alexa Rank
| 452,891
| 1,376,311
| The lower the better, SemiWiki is more popular as measured by Alexa, the global leader in analytics. Alexa Internet, Inc. is a California-based subsidiary company of Amazon.com that is known for its toolbar and website. Once installed, the Alexa toolbar collects data on browsing behavior and transmits it to thewebsite, where it is stored and analyzed, forming the basis for the company’s web traffic reporting. Alexa provides traffic data, global
rankings and other information on thousands of websites, and claims that 6 million people visit its website monthly.
|-
| Forums
| Yes
| No
| SemiWiki is open for realtime comments and discussion, no filtering like DeepChip.
|-
| Blogs
| Yes
| No
| SemiWiki has five regular bloggers and is open for all registered users.
|-
| Wiki Pages
| Yes
| No
| Hundreds of focused Wiki pages for EDA, IP and Semi topics. Registered users may update as needed, just like Wikipedia.
|-
| Anonymous
Content
| No
| Yes
| Every registered user at SemiWiki is verified to be part of EDA, Semi or IP industries. DeepChip is mostly anonymous sources.
|-
| DAC 2012
Coverage
| 45 Reports
Same
Week
| Not Yet
| SemiWiki had four bloggers write about 45 companies. Nothing yet from DeepChip after 6 months of waiting.
|-

While SemiWiki has adopted a media platform built on openness, collaboration, forums, blogs and wiki pages the industry has rapidly adopted the model. In stark contrast John’s media platform is actually closed, is never real time, and has stopped covering our largest event (DAC) in a timely manner.

An example of collaboration comes from my friend Ian Getreu, co-founder of Analogy, who started to make a list of all EDA and Semi IP mergers since the beginning of our industry. We’ve had 17,586 pageviews on this one wiki page simply because of high interest, and registered members can keep it current and updated.

We call what SemiWiki does crowdsourcing and it’s working.

Sure, you can hire an un-named PR firm to poll an unknown sample size from four small EDA companies, “What onlines do you read?” and expect to see questionable results. It reminds me of that line from Groucho Marx, “Who are you going to believe, me or your own eyes?”

Hopefully the comparison data presented here makes sense to you and shows just how different your media choices are.

I read both SemiWiki and DeepChip to keep updated, but most of my time is spent reading the steady stream of SemiWiki content from a variety of authors that I have come to know, trust and respect.