4 ms·

Ask HN: any way to find out how a specific site is made?

6 points by olegious 15y ago

Every time I see an interesting site, I'm curious as to what language it is written in, what framework is being used, etc. Is there an easy way of finding out this information?

keyle 15y ago
The source often give clues. Web apps usually populate the source with some relevant meta data. Other than that, Netcraft was useful to know "what's this site running?". That gives you clues of the OS and the possible technologies used. ie. http://searchdns.netcraft.com/?host=techcrunch.com&x=0&y=0 http://searchdns.netcraft.com/?host=techcrunch.com&x=0&#... Also you can try post their forms and dig around that to find out clues.
instakill 15y ago
Go to builtwith.com/yourwebsite.com
- morganpyne 15y ago
  The O.P. was asking for a little more details than builtwith.com seems to provide (how it is constructed rather than what face it presents to the public), however I had never heard of builtwith.com and quite liked it so thanks for the recommendation.
  - instakill 15y ago
    He asked how to find out what language and frameworks are used to build websites. If there is a service that goes about detailing how these frameworks are used to construct websites, then I'd definitely like a link.
- olegious 15y ago
  builtwith is almost what I was looking for.
aqrashik 15y ago
Slightly unrelated, but sometimes I really wish there was a search engine which would allow you to search the source of a website instead of the output. That way you could easily find data about all websites using a particular jQuery plugin, or all websites having a tweet button and so forth. Would be quite useful for analysis purposes and to gauge the popularity of various frameworks, etc.
- garazy 15y ago
  Hi if you go to http://builtwith.com/suggest.aspx http://builtwith.com/suggest.aspx and we're not covering it I can add it and you'll start seeing it on http://trends.builtwith.com http://trends.builtwith.com
  - aqrashik 15y ago
    This is somewhat similar to what I had in mind, but would I be able to combine criteria? Just as an example, what if I wanted to find the number of sites which were using MooTools and had a Twitter button on them, but not a Facebook like button.

6 points by olegious 15y ago

Every time I see an interesting site, I'm curious as to what language it is written in, what framework is being used, etc. Is there an easy way of finding out this information?

keyle 15y ago

The source often give clues. Web apps usually populate the source with some relevant meta data. Other than that, Netcraft was useful to know "what's this site running?". That gives you clues of the OS and the possible technologies used. ie. http://searchdns.netcraft.com/?host=techcrunch.com&x=0&y=0 http://searchdns.netcraft.com/?host=techcrunch.com&x=0&#... Also you can try post their forms and dig around that to find out clues.

instakill 15y ago

Go to builtwith.com/yourwebsite.com

morganpyne 15y ago
The O.P. was asking for a little more details than builtwith.com seems to provide (how it is constructed rather than what face it presents to the public), however I had never heard of builtwith.com and quite liked it so thanks for the recommendation.
- instakill 15y ago
  He asked how to find out what language and frameworks are used to build websites. If there is a service that goes about detailing how these frameworks are used to construct websites, then I'd definitely like a link.
olegious 15y ago
builtwith is almost what I was looking for.

aqrashik 15y ago

Slightly unrelated, but sometimes I really wish there was a search engine which would allow you to search the source of a website instead of the output. That way you could easily find data about all websites using a particular jQuery plugin, or all websites having a tweet button and so forth. Would be quite useful for analysis purposes and to gauge the popularity of various frameworks, etc.

garazy 15y ago
Hi if you go to http://builtwith.com/suggest.aspx http://builtwith.com/suggest.aspx and we're not covering it I can add it and you'll start seeing it on http://trends.builtwith.com http://trends.builtwith.com
- aqrashik 15y ago
  This is somewhat similar to what I had in mind, but would I be able to combine criteria? Just as an example, what if I wanted to find the number of sites which were using MooTools and had a Twitter button on them, but not a Facebook like button.