It used to be easier to figure out what software created a website. The following steps used to work:
- Look for some text on the site that can be progressively highlighted. That is to say, you can progressively highlight one word in a sentence without necessarily highlighting the next word in the sentence.
- Right click on some text on the site
- Observe that a menu pops up
- Look at the menu for an item that allows you to view the HTML for the website, also known as the source code.
- choose View Source from the menu or something that sounds similar to View Source
- Type CNTRL-F to find what you are looking for in the HTML of the website
- Observe that a search box pops up
- Type the word generator in the search box. You will be looking for each occurrence of the word generator in the HTML
- Search for the word generator by hitting enter or whatever it takes to get the search started
- When the search lands on a line that has a meta tag in it, you've found the software that has generated the webpage. Often the software will have both a name and a version number
That's the old way of doing things. While the above steps might work, I find HTML generators of all kinds --- HTML editors, site buiders, etc. --- are increasingly hiding who there are.
So, now it takes a bit of detective work to find out.
Drag and Drop Builder
Looks like Tucows has something called Drag and Drop Builder on their site. I've been able to identify a site built by Drag and Drop Builder by identifying the word DragndDropBuilder in the source code.
It appears to me that Godaddy uses a site builder called Website Tonight.
Either these site builders are proprietary to the web hosting companys named above or they are products that are offered at multiple hosting companies. I'm not sure which.
In any case, site builder software does tend to tie you to a specific hosting company.
Ed Abbott
