My Web Alert - Automated Website Monitoring

This was the website for MyWebAlert.
The content is from outside sources that mention this site.

Way back in 2007 I first learned about My Web Alert from a 2007 Euro Tech News Blog Post which follows:

27/02/2007
MyWebAlert - Website Availability Monitoring Service for only $4 a month
Hype or something useful? Well it's free (even though their page title [as above] states $4 per month), a service that monitors websites by testing http responses etc. Though there's no mention of money, presumably there'll be a paid for version in the future. The results of their probes are Emailed to you once per month, it does all seem very painless.

Then I read this article and became a bit more skeptical about the site's services. Eventually the site's domain registration expired and the site disappeared from the web. We will probably never know the reason why the original owner of the site allowed the domain registration to expire, but it probably had to do with the fact that he/she couldn't successfully monetize the endeavor.
Recently I discovered that the domain was available, so I bought it with the goal of recreating some of its original content from archived pages. Unfortunately there were no usable archived pages of the original site although other subsequent owners had used it for a variety of purposes. Nevertheless I decided to keep the spirit of the original website intact via comments from outside sources.

2020 update:
The problem with the business model probably has to do with the fact that there are so many service that accomplish these kinds of alerts, many are free. We were looking into instances outside the normal "is my website down?" type of query and got loads of examples. There are many sites that provide critical infrastructure services that people rely on for very serious reasons. For example, this site would not have reached its intended audience without the assistance of the SEO masters at TNG/Earthling, especially CEO Bob Sakayama, who used state of the art digital tools including artificial intelligence to achieve high ranks for our most important keywords. His work enabled the site to cut through the layers of competition and provide motivated traffic from the demographics most beneficial to us.

The Results Circa 2007

Where’s the business model in Web 2.0? Don’t ask MyWebAlert.

By tim, on February 19th, 2007
Today IT Week has my piece on the lack of any business model in Yahoo Pipes, a thought underlined by an unusual press release which popped into my inbox. It is from John Earley of MyWebAlert, a company set up to monitor web site availability. Press releases are not usually so dejected:

Following a series of reports (copies available) that proved website availability is miserable in both the public and private sectors, we had thought folks would pay a paltry sum for monitoring and management services. This has proved not to be the case. Having sunk the investment in the software and architecture, we have abandoned hope of a business plan and are now making the service available free-of-charge.

Intrigued, I took a look at the site. The About page confirms this gravity-defying business endeavor, but looks forward to a bright tomorrow “somehow”:

It appears that the strategy is working, at least in terms of expanding the business. That’s presuming that site overload is the reason for what happened when I tried to sign up:

One presumes the outage will be short-lived, bearing in mind the company’s raison d’etre.

Incidentally Web site monitoring is also available from Netcraft and no doubt others. For a fee.

Free hack monitoring from MyWebAlert

Website monitoring company MyWebAlert has launched a free service that will visit registered sites every five minutes and verify they have not been attacked or hijacked. The company is especially looking at SMEs and educational institutions to benefit from their offer.

MyWebAlert will continue its regular service (http://www.techworld.com/applications/news/index.cfm?NewsID=5523) where the company monitors a user's website 24/7 for £2.30 ($US4.27) a month or £23 a year.

John Earley, MyWebAlert's managing director said that the free monitoring move was aimed at end-users like SMEs and schools, "who cannot always afford to have such a service of value and yet would want to protect themselves from website vandalism."

In the free service, registered users can specify a string of hidden text, which MyWebAlert can look for during every five-minute check. Hackers replacing sections of the website will be identified immediately and an alert will be sent to the user.

"What makes MyWebAlert different from monitoring services based within a company, is that we monitor websites from three different locations: Docklands in London, San Francisco, and Houston in Texas. What happens with network management systems is that they use the same site as the network," Earley explained.

To guard against false alarms, MyWebAlert will not alert the website owner of a possible hack unless it receives notification from all its three locations. At the end of every month, the company will also send users a report to show how their site has fared.

To check for failed websites in industries, MyWebAlert had conducted a study where the FTSE had 43 percent failures and the retail sector had 40 percent. In contrast, the airline sector has performed well with fewer than 7 percent of sites having failed, said Earley.

"I think that this clearly demonstrates in an industry that is inherently interested in services operating and one that depends heavily on the Internet for trading that they can achieve very high levels of service availability," he added.

MyWebAlert - Website Availability Monitoring Service for only $4 a month MyWebAlert - Website Availability Monitoring Service for only $4 a month Hype or something useful? Well it's free (even though their page title [as above] states $4 per month), a service that monitors websites by testing http responses etc. Though there's no mention of money, presumably there'll be a piad for version in the future. The results of their probes are Emailed to you once per month, it does all seem very painless. Posted by Steve Karmeinsky