A nice Search Engine Watch Forums thread asks for tips on how to learn about your competitors web statistics in any way. Normally, the best and most accurate method is to see the actual log files, but very often that is not possible. So what data can you get?
Some suggestions given in the thread include:
- Alexa - but we all know that it is far from accurate
- Quantcast - free internet ratings service.
- Compete - like Alexa
There are other services listed in the Search Engine Watch Forums thread, but I also want to point you to A List of Every Website Statistic Publicly Available by Rand, it is a very comprehensive list of publicly available tools that can help you learn as much as possible about your competitors web site.
Forum discussion at Search Engine Watch Forums.