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Ask HN: Getting information about a URL or domain from other web services
5 points by sam_in_nyc on Feb 3, 2009 | hide | past | favorite | 3 comments
I'm midway working on a sort of "reverse look-up" tool for domains and URLs. The idea is: you enter a URL, and then choose from a big list of actions. These actions should utilize the huge gamut of web services available, and should merely forward you to some other webpage.

For example, a user might type in "news.ycombinator.com" and an action could be "Find similar websites to this domain using Google," which would forward them to http://www.google.com/search?q=related:news.ycombinator.com

I'd like to get some ideas on which categories and/or specific web services you guys think would be useful. It doesn't have to be particular to any topic at all... anything goes. It should be something you would personally use or that the general population would find useful.

Here are some example actions I've thought of myself:

  - Quantcast, Alexa, Compete, show stats on that domain
  - Look up that domain on CrunchBase to view information on the start-up behind it
  - social media submission (submit to Digg, Reddit, etc)
  - find highest ranked Dugg/Reddit stories from that domain
  - Find similar webpages to the URL or Domain (using Google 'similar' feature)
  - translate page with Google Translate
  - shorten the URL using bit.ly et al
  - view tweets containing that URL using Twitturly
  - search for blog articles linking to that URL using Sphere, Technorati, SocialMention, et al
  - what was the website built with, using BuiltWith.com
Hopefully you guys can fill in the blanks.

Thanks!



Here are the results for this page using the Site Information Tool extension I have in Firefox: http://www.wmtips.com/tools/info/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnews.ycom...


Thanks. Another great one is DomainTools.com: http://whois.domaintools.com/news.ycombinator.com

Domain look-up services I've got pretty well covered. Any other services you use?


Reverse IP look up can be helpful, as well as info from the Who Is database. Check out abouthisite.com, they have some functionality along those lines.

I would also recommend using Yahoo Site Explore and the Google link: operator to look at back links.




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