Skip to main content

Google Chrome now tells you if a website is inaccessible

When a website does not open, web browsers throw a general “website not found” or “server not responding” message. Such messages are vague and does not tell you whether the web server is actually down or if the problem is elsewhere. Your ISP could be facing technical problems, or deliberately blocking the page, there might be a temporary traffic congestion or something wrong in your home connection.

A web service that has been offering immense help in troubleshooting such problems, and which is popular among the tech folks is Down For Everyone Or Just Me. You go there, enter the URL of the page that doesn’t open and see if others people around the world are having trouble accessing the site as well. But the latest version of Chrome appears to provide the same information, as discovered by blog Rudefox. 

While trying to access a website, the blogger got the typical Chrome message “Oops! Google Chrome could not connect to site.com” and additionally it also mentioned that “Other users are also experiencing difficulties connecting to this site, so you may have to wait a few minutes.”.

google-chrome-error

It’s a known fact that Google collects anonymous surfing data from users of Chrome. With this latest Chrome feature, Google accidentally opened up a small crack in their data vault allowing us a quick view of the kind of data Google may be collecting from users, even though Matt Cutts denies Google snooping in on users.

If you’re just surfing around the web and clicking on links, that information does not go to google.com.

It’s a great thing to make the user aware that its not his connection that is the source of the problem but the web server, but it comes at a price.

[via TechCrunch]

Labels:

Comments

  1. Hannah HurstSeptember 6, 2010 at 3:08 PM

    The regular message of “website not found” is very irritating to the user. Mostly because of how vague and unhelpful this is by not informing you of whether the web server is actually down or if the problem is elsewhere.

    To have the option of a more informative site which can assist you on actually finding the fault is great. The simplicity of just having to type in your problem URL just adds to its favour. Next time I get the dreaded message I will definitely be checking out this site to see what everyone else around the world has to say.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

How to Schedule Changes to Your Facebook Page Cover Photo

Facebook’s current layout, the so called Timeline, features a prominent, large cover photo that some people are using in a lot of different creative ways. Timeline is also available for Facebook Pages that people can use to promote their website or business or event. Although you can change the cover photo as often as you like, it’s meant to be static – something which you design and leave it for at least a few weeks or months like a redesigned website. However, there are times when you may want to change the cover photo frequently and periodically to match event dates or some special promotion that you are running or plan to run. So, here is how you can do that.
1 comment
Read more

69 alternatives to the default Facebook profile picture

If you have changed the default Facebook profile picture and uploaded your own, it’s fine. But if not, then why not replace that boring picture of the guy with a wisp of hair sticking out of his head with something different and funny?
332 comments
Read more

How to remove watermark from an image or picture

A watermark is any recognizable text, logo or pattern that appears over an image to identify the owner of the image and generally used to prevent unauthorized reuse of the image. Watermarks are usually transparent and can be difficult to remove. The difficulty or ease of removal depends on the content of the image and the position, color, size etc of the watermark.
210 comments
Read more