Prepare for the next Gmail, Facebook, or Twitter outage by checking out these “website down” services. These sites tell you if site is down for everyone, or just you. But with many of these websites having such similar-sounding names, it’s hard to keep track of which site does what. We’re here to help. Here are the five best websites for checking the status of your favorite sites and services.
1. Down for Everyone or Just Me?
(Down for Everyone or Just Me?)
Also available through Short URL at isup.me, Down for Everyone or Just Me? offers a minimal, stripped down interface. Just pop in the website’s URL into the search bar, and the site does the rest. Your query will be answered with something like “It’s not just you! [WEBSITE NAME] looks down from here.”
Pros:
Also available through Short URL at isup.me Loads fastClear, understandable responsesNo distracting ads or other clutter (there are ads, but they are unobtrusive)User-friendly
Cons:
Doesn’t provide info about outage’s expected durationDoesn’t show if others have recently searched for the same siteDoesn’t let you check more than one service at a timeDoesn’t explain possible causesIf site is up, site doesn’t offer links to troubleshooting
2. Google Apps Status Dashboard
Google’s App Status Dashboard is a simple webpage that shows you the outages all Google services have experienced in the past seven days. Services like Gmail, Hangouts, Google Drive, Maps, and more are all represented. If you are constantly using Google services for work or school, you should have this page bookmarked.
Pros:
Easy, color-coded dots to indicate statusLets you see a whole bunch of services at a glanceAlso lets you see past outages from the past few daysProvides info, when available, regarding outage resolution progressProvides a link to report issues
Cons:
Only useful for tracking Google servicesYou do have to click on a dot to get detailed outage infoYou do need to scroll down to see the whole listYou can click “older” to see older outages, but you can only got back a week at a timeTop nav bar seems more focused on selling products than helping you with outage info
3. Down Right Now
Down Right Now offers an outage monitoring service that is powered by user reports and official announcements. You can see at a glance whether popular websites are “up,” experiencing “possible service trouble,” or having a “Likely Service Disruption.”
Pros:
See a graph of service disruptions over the past 24 hoursAlso has a robust Twitter account for timely notificationsShows status for tons of popular websitesAlso shows date of last outage/interruptionEasy to take in all the info in a few seconds
Cons:
You need to select the option for “refresh automatically”If following on Twitter, you need to follow two accounts to get all the noticesOnly monitors select sites and servicesYou have to click through to a second page for details (It would be nice if you could hover your cursor over the details button to get a preview)Site design is a little busy
4. Is It Down Right Now?
Available through a short URL (iidrn.com), Is It Down Right Now? offers you the ability to check a specific site, or to view the status of popular services like Netflix, Facebook, YouTube, Steam, and many more. Once added to your toolbar, their bookmarklet button will let you to check the status of a site from your browser’s toolbar.
Pros:
Available through a short URLToolbar supportSee up-to-the-minute info while checking a siteShows list of recently down and checked sitesRange of “popular sites” is broader than what’s on the main Down Right Now site
Cons:
A lot of info on one page, with lots of scrolling needed to take it all inRecent comments widget may not always have useful infoDoesn’t appear to have an automatic refresh optionTroubleshooting info isn’t on main site page, but on results pageLoads more slowly than Down for Everyone or Just Me?
5. Just Down For Me?
Just Down For Me? is handy because, where possible, they provide the IP address of the website from when it was last working. This allows you to try accessing it directly without the domain name. It may not be pretty, but this site can be quite helpful. That being said, it has some issues, which we’ll outline below.
Pros:
Shows you sites that recently went down, sites that were recently checked, and sites that get checked frequently for outagesProvides IP infoOffers info on past outagesOffers general website info for downed sitesFeels less US-focused than other services, nice for international users
Cons:
Kind of ugly“Recently down” may not be super-accurate: During a recent Facebook outage, Facebook.com didn’t appear on the listSearch bar text font style is a little off-puttingSlow to loadSometimes takes multiple attempts to send a search request: if you’re using this site, you’re better off clicking the links in the history reports rather than starting a fresh search
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Top 5 Best ‘Website Down’ Checker Sites