A bookmarklet to see if a site is down

• 1 min read

🚧

Whoa there!

This post contains code that's more than 12 years old. It might be fine, but you should probably check to make sure this isn't incredibly stupid by today's standards.

Smart people head to Down for Everyone or Just Me when they can’t reach a website. But who has time for all that typing? Certainly not me. That’s why I took 45 seconds and created a bookmarklet to make this easier.

Most people have no idea what a bookmarklet is. The mere idea of editing a bookmark’s address doesn’t even seem to register with them. Me, I’m not like most people. You should be more like me. Here’s how.

Step One

Create a new bookmark. It doesn’t matter what site you’re on. Do it here for all I care.

Save that bookmark to your Bookmarks Toolbar.

Step Two

Edit the bookmark. You’ll want to change both the name and the address. Here’s the code you’ll need:

javascript:(function() {str=location.hostname; down='http://downforeveryoneorjustme.com/'; location.href=(down + str);})()

Make it look like the picture:

Bookmarklet

Step Three

There’s no step three.

Whenever a site seems unreachable, just click the item in your Bookmarks Toolbar and you’ll be whisked away to Down for Everyone or Just Me.

Have fun.

Very late update

This can be a little tricky, because not all browsers will read the `location.hostname` in the address bar if the site is failing to load.