I got a link to a great list from Majestic SEO of the top million web sites in the world.  They are ranked by the number of back links, defined as sites that link back to your site.  It kind of reminded me of the scene from The Jerk with Steve Martin where he gets all excited: “The new phone books are here, the new phone books are here!” In the movie Steve finds his name in the new phone book and declares “I am somebody!” (Click below for video clip)

danburg.com is my baby.  I designed and uploaded the first generation myself back in 1999.  Our latest incarnation, Danburg 3.0 is upgraded for today’s social web.  We’ve always had real-time availabilities, but we have expanded it to have an interactive blog with fresh content (like this), a local news feed, and a private directory for our tenants.

We have always strived to be cutting edge when it comes to technology. I take a lot of pride that we are always near the top when people are searching for office or warehouse space in Boca Raton.  But in this new “phonebook”, am I somebody? Did we make the top million?
Sadly, we didn’t make the list.  And yes, I am disappointed, but I’m not discouraged.  There are over 200 million registered web domains.  I heard a great quote — “if you’re one in a million in China, there are 1,000 of you”.

Our site is listed by Majestic with 42 referring domains at 80 external back links, which means there are links to our site on 80 pages in 42 sites. www.music.itop.net, part of a Russian Entertainment site, tied for #1,000,000 with 343 referring domains, (now 344 thanks to me), so we have a ways to go.

I will take satisfaction that we have one of the best commercial real estate sites in South Florida, and that if people are looking for us, they can find us on Google, or just about any place on the web.  Hopefully, some of you will like our blog and link to us.  Can we crack the top million?  Not sure, but we’ll let you know where we stand in 2013.

The list itself is fairly interesting.  Not surprisingly, Google and Facebook checked in as #1 and #2.  Adobe is third, which makes sense because they get a link from almost everybody who puts a PDF file on their site.  Three more Google sites (Youtube #4, Blogspot #9 and Google Maps #10) cracked the top 10.  Twitter (#5) shows how powerful social media has become.  Microsoft (#6) and Wikipedia (#7) round out the top 10.

Some other household names include Amazon (#19), Myspace (you mean people still use that site? #20), AOL (how the mighty have fallen #35) and Ebay (#39).  For colleges, MIT is #62, Stanford is #69, Cal Berkley is #80 and Harvard #82 (but people are asking for a playoff system).  BBC is tops in media at #22 followed by the New York Times #24 and CNN #30.

In our field of commercial real estate, CB Richard Ellis is #20,021 or six spots ahead of porn.com.  Cushman and Wakefield checks in at #26,690, Colliers is #31,375, and Jones Lang #43,436.  For Real Estate Information, Realtor.com is #1,834, Costar is #17,851 and Loopnet is #10,335.

It’s endless fun for your inner nerd to browse down the list.  (You’ll need Excel 2007 or later).  Are external back links the proper way to determine the most popular sites?  I’m not sure, but that is the way Google ranks them, so my opinion really doesn’t matter.  That’s all I’ve got for today.  If you’re looking for me, I’ll be sitting at the door waiting for my new phonebooks!

— Ken Silberling, Director of Business Development