Most developers spend time cruising the Web looking for new ideas when time presents itself. Sometimes a Web site will deliver a presentation that knocks your socks off and you just have to know how the developer did it. Unfortunately, seeing the effect and discovering how the developer did it are two different things. Unless you have an automated tool to help you, prepare to spend countless hours in frustrating research that may not net even one good clue. Fortunately, there’s a free online tool available to help you perform such analysis in the form of Sitonomy.com (http://www.sitonomy.com/).

What It Does

Sitonomy.com is an interesting kind of Web site. It relies on Google-like simplicity to deliver all kinds of useful information about a Web site. Take a run over to http://www.sitonomy.com/ now and you’ll see a Web page similar to the one shown in Figure 1.

Figure 1: The interface Sitonomy.com relies on looks almost too easy.

To use Sitonomy.com, simply type the URL you want to analyze into the field and click Analyze. In this case, try out www.microsoft.com. (Make sure you enter the entire URL when you need to view something other than an HTTP site.) Figure 2 shows some typical results that Sitonomy.com provides for www.microsoft.com.

Figure 2: Sitonomy.com provides comprehensive analysis of how a Web site is put together.

At the top of the results, you see the URL you provided, the <Title> of the Web site, and the actual IP address. There isn’t anything too special about this information—you could easily discover it using other means, but it does make a printout easier to identify later.

The next section contains the Web components that the Web site uses. For example, Microsoft relies on JQuery. The short description provides you with enough information to know whether you want to investigate this component further. Click the JQuery link and you receive additional information about JQuery as shown in Figure 3.

Figure 3: Discover additional information about any tool used on a Web site.

The detailed information tells you about alternatives for this tool, places that implement the tool, and similar tool categories. The implementation list doesn’t contain every Web site that uses the tool—this list provides a representative sample. If you find a particular tool interests you, you can click the link at the bottom of the page to go to the tool’s Web site. In some cases, you’ll also see user reviews for a tool. However, my personal experience is that this is an area where Sitonomy.com has yet to grow substantially.

The Web site analysis is helpful too. For example, Sitonomy.com tells you that this particular Web site uses JQuery for 14.5% of its requirements, which is an indicator of how heavily the Web site developers used that particular Web component. You may decide that JQuery is too obscure for your needs, so Sitonomy.com thoughtfully provides a list of alternatives that you can try, as shown in Figure 4.

Figure 4: If you don’t like the tool that the current Web site uses, look for an alternative.

The alternatives list tells you a little about each tool. In addition, you discover how popular the tool is so that you can compare it with other alternatives. In short, you can go round and round in Sitonomy.com and end up quite a distance from your original analysis location.

Other Tidbits You Can Discover

Sitonomy.com doesn’t just help you discover Web components. You can also learn about what affiliate network a Web site uses and even the server software it relies on to get the job done. The FAQ at http://www.sitonomy.com/faq.aspx is a little light—it doesn’t tell you everything you can get from Sitonomy.com, but it’s a good starting point. For example, the FAQ mentions nothing about helping you discover the programming language used to write the code for a particular Web site, but the site does in fact provide this information.

In some cases, the information you receive from Sitonomy.com is a little uneven. You might get a full discussion of the functionality of one Web site and only bits and pieces for another. The amount of information you receive depends on how open the Web site is for exploration and the kinds of tools it uses. If Sitonomy.com doesn’t recognize a particular tool, it can’t tell you about it. Hopefully, the coverage will become a little more even as Sitonomy.com matures. Even so, it’s already a great tool.

Sometimes you have to wonder whether the Sitonomy.com statistics are completely accurate. For example, when you look at http://www.sitonomy.com/alternatives/programming-language, you discover that PHP has an extraordinarily large following—at least, according to Sitonomy.com it does. The statistics are based on the Web sites that Sitonomy.com has dealt with, which obviously isn’t a reflection of those in the entire world. As with most tools, you need to take a few things that you obtain from Sitonomy.com with a grain of salt.

Making Sitonomy.com Easier to Access

I found Sitonomy.com so helpful that I’ve added it to my list of tools. You can create a bookmarklet for Sitonomy.com by following the instructions at http://www.sitonomy.com/bookmarklet.aspx. The bookmarklet is different from a bookmark. If you go to a Web site and then select the bookmarklet, Sitonomy.com will perform an analysis of that Web site. You still go to Sitonomy.com, but you see the results for the Web site you were just viewing, rather than the main Sitonomy.com page.

Creating a Complete Toolbox

It’s important to realize that Sitonomy.com isn’t a complete solution for analyzing other Web sites. It’s a great tool—even an essential tool, but it isn’t the only tool you need—not if you’re serious. For example, another favorite of mine is JSView (https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/2076). This particular tool lets me see the source code for all of those hidden script files that most Web sites use. Most developers will want to add other tools to their toolbox to get a complete picture of the Web sites they visit.

Some people might get a creepy feeling about creating a toolbox of the sort that I describe in this article. This form of Web site viewing is perfectly legitimate and a great way to enhance your development capabilities. Developers are always copying from each other and there are Web sites devoted to the topic. Of course, when you start using tools of this sort, you also have the responsibility to use them in positive ways. As with any tool, people could use Sitonomy.com abusively.

Bottom Line

Sitonomy.com is extremely good at what it does. You’ll definitely discover more about every Web site you analyze using Sitonomy.com. Of course, what you’ll discover are the tools that the developer uses to make the Web site useful. If you want to know what language a developer used to create the Web site or which server software the organization prefers, Sitonomy.com is the tool of choice. However, Sitonomy.com is only one of many tools you need to perform extensive analysis of any Web site.

You’ll find that Sitonomy.com still has room to grow. Given that this tool has only now begun attracting much attention, I have high hopes that the developer will take the time required to help you obtain even and in-depth results for every Web site you analyze. I’m also realistic enough to know, however, that some elements will remain hidden no matter how hard you try to discover them.

BIO

John Mueller is a freelance author and technical editor. He has writing in his blood, having produced 82 books and over 300 articles to date. The topics range from networking to artificial intelligence and from database management to heads down programming. His current project is LINQ for Dummies (available now), which you can order at http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0470277947/datacservip0f-20/. His technical editing skills have helped over 60 authors refine the content of their manuscripts. You can reach John on the Internet at JMueller@mwt.net and his Web site at: http://www.mwt.net/~jmueller/.