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"Downdetector" is kind of a genius scam. It "detects" outages by counting hits for the service on its own page. If lots of people are checking, it just assumes

"Downdetector" is kind of a genius scam. It "detects" outages by counting hits for the service on its own page. If lots of people are checking, it just assumes that it's down. It doesn't really "detect" anything.

taberiand 3y ago
Seems to be a more reliable heuristic than whatever most companies use for their status pages
tomashubelbauer 3y ago
I agree with "genius" but don't see why "scam"? In all but the most theoretical scenarios users checking Down Detector to see if a service is down and the service being down are one and the same.
helsinkiandrew 3y ago
> It "detects" outages by counting hits for the service on its own page. If lots of people are checking, it just assumes that it's down Does it? I assume it uses hits to the "I have a problem with xxx" button after you get to the service from the front page.
iforgotpassword 3y ago
Yeah, this is always the first one I end up on and the sigh, keeping googling until I find one that actually tries to load the target site from multiple locations. It's infrequent enough that I never remember which one it was, and I'm too lazy to bookmark anything. :)
Jensson 3y ago
It reliably tells me that others has issues, if downdetector doesn't spike then I know it is just me.
aaron695 3y ago
If people need to know why you might call it a 'scam' it failed during the AT&T outage and caused most news sites to misreport what was going on i.e. - "Tens of thousands lose cellular coverage from AT&T, Verizon, T-Mobile and more" - https://fortune.com/2024/02/22/cellular-service-outage-att-verizon-tmobile-cricket-downdetector/ https://fortune.com/2024/02/22/cellular-service-outage-att-v... (CNN and most news sites have corrected their stories) You could image some sort of botnet (with AI for the Blackhat VC capital) causing a complex news story for some benefit.
gmerc 3y ago
Sounds like a legit side channel to me
nrb 3y ago
It literally says “User reports indicate possible problems at McDonalds app” when you click on the service in question… I fail to see the dishonesty or scam.
IAmGraydon 3y ago
> It "detects" outages by counting hits for the service on its own page. If lots of people are checking, it just assumes that it's down. That’s not how DownDetector works.

taberiand 3y ago

Seems to be a more reliable heuristic than whatever most companies use for their status pages

tomashubelbauer 3y ago

I agree with "genius" but don't see why "scam"? In all but the most theoretical scenarios users checking Down Detector to see if a service is down and the service being down are one and the same.

helsinkiandrew 3y ago

> It "detects" outages by counting hits for the service on its own page. If lots of people are checking, it just assumes that it's down Does it? I assume it uses hits to the "I have a problem with xxx" button after you get to the service from the front page.

iforgotpassword 3y ago

Yeah, this is always the first one I end up on and the sigh, keeping googling until I find one that actually tries to load the target site from multiple locations. It's infrequent enough that I never remember which one it was, and I'm too lazy to bookmark anything. :)

Jensson 3y ago

It reliably tells me that others has issues, if downdetector doesn't spike then I know it is just me.

aaron695 3y ago

If people need to know why you might call it a 'scam' it failed during the AT&T outage and caused most news sites to misreport what was going on i.e. - "Tens of thousands lose cellular coverage from AT&T, Verizon, T-Mobile and more" - https://fortune.com/2024/02/22/cellular-service-outage-att-verizon-tmobile-cricket-downdetector/ https://fortune.com/2024/02/22/cellular-service-outage-att-v... (CNN and most news sites have corrected their stories) You could image some sort of botnet (with AI for the Blackhat VC capital) causing a complex news story for some benefit.

gmerc 3y ago

Sounds like a legit side channel to me

nrb 3y ago

It literally says “User reports indicate possible problems at McDonalds app” when you click on the service in question… I fail to see the dishonesty or scam.

IAmGraydon 3y ago

> It "detects" outages by counting hits for the service on its own page. If lots of people are checking, it just assumes that it's down. That’s not how DownDetector works.