

As Web Traffic Grows, Crashes Take Bigger Toll - bkow20
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/06/technology/06outage.html?hp

======
esja
This should be a browser feature/plugin. Perhaps a question-mark icon next to
the address bar.

Site doesn't load or has other problems? Hit the question mark and see the
latest reported issues. Your details (browser, IP, etc.) are automatically
uploaded and attached to an optional comment, for other people to compare
against (same ISP, same country, same browser, etc.).

Pingdom and others sell monitoring. You could probably sell this data to
companies - live reports on failures for certain user groups.

Actually... why not make it an open database where you can log issues (not
just site failure) against all kinds of services - internet banking sites, the
London Underground (District Line still suffering signal failures), etc. Many
organisations would ignore or oppose it, but the good ones would find it
useful, which implies a way to make money.

All you would have to do is connect the question-mark to the web site / page
being visited, and use that as the basis for the ticket. People could maintain
a database of contact/help email addresses for each site (the sites could pop
up on a queue as they were reported), and the tickets could be sent to that
address, to let the organisation know "you are being watched". :-)

Every organisation has a site, and every site has a way to get a message to
whoever runs it.

This could grow to a size where it became a significant cultural force.
Perhaps that's just the wine talking, but it's quite good wine, so who knows.

Edit: You should also be able to submit a screen-grab with your
complaint/suggestion.

Opinions?

~~~
jacobbijani
Of course you could make an overly elaborate uptime monitoring system. Many
people have in the past. The thing that makes downforeveryone neat is that it
is absolutely bare-bones. "Is it down for everyone?" "Nope, just you." No
screen shots, no packet traces. Does it work? Yes/no. All I wanted to know.

