Websites Downtime

WatchMouse publishes first 'Site Availability Index' (2005-06-28)

Only 9 out of 25 funds listed on the Amsterdam stock exchange have sites with good availability

Of the websites of the 25 funds listed on the Amsterdam stock exchange (AEX), only nine display optimal availability. The availability of the other sites, including those of multinationals, ranges from poor to dramatically poor. Unilever has the best result of all websites, with an uptime of 99.995%. The site with the lowest availability is that of Wolters-Kluwer, with an uptime of 94.80%, which represents more than 37 hours of poor performance, or even unavailability, per month. This was the conclusion drawn from the first Site Availability Index created by WatchMouse, a company supplying monitoring services for websites and e-commerce applications world-wide.

An uptime of 99.9% is seen as the minimum acceptable level. This percentage is also often quoted in service level agreements (SLAs) with hosting providers. In order to determine the extent to which the sites of AEX funds achieve satisfactory uptime, WatchMouse monitored the sites for more than two months. Downtime was said to occur if a site was not available or did not respond within 8 seconds.

The Site Availability Index for AEX funds (www.watchmouse.com/bereikbaarheidsindex/2005/AEX.html) showed that only nine funds fulfilled the minimum required level of 99.9%. These were Unilever, Philips, AEGON, Numico, Akzo Nobel, ASML Holding, Kon. P&O Nedlloyd, Versatel and Buhrmann. Bringing up the rear were IT company(!) Getronics (96.87%), DSM (96.75%), and Wolters-Kluwer, which with a score of 94.80% is over a day and a half a month ‘off the air’.

The Site Availability Index for AEX funds is an initiative of Emerce and WatchMouse and will be repeated annually.

"Very surprised"

Mark Pors, chief technology officer at WatchMouse, stated that he was "very surprised" by the results. "With many sites, we found an uptime that is worse than that of many smaller companies. And this while AEX funds in particular should attach a great deal of priority to their corporate image. A maximum uptime is part of the 'brand performance'. Our theory is that, where there are a lot of people involved within an organisation, there are a lot of hands unplugging cables, so to speak. These companies have complex processes, a great many internal changes are made, and outsourcing of various activities means transparency is often at a premium. This is clearly the case with Getronics, for example. The uptime of the site at the weekend is 100%, but during the week, when people are working, this decreases dramatically."

Pors suspects that the popularity of the sites could also be a reason for poor availability. "Naturally, sites belonging to AEX funds get a lot more traffic than the smaller businesses. On the other hand, this is no excuse; if we look at large online brokers in the US, for example, all achieve an uptime in excess of 99.9%."

About WatchMouse

Companies can easily monitor their own internet sites using WatchMouse's monitoring service. WatchMouse has been monitoring internet sites and e-commerce applications for companies throughout the world since 2001. WatchMouse has thousands of customers in more than 70 countries. The services supplied by WatchMouse are available in eight languages, and analyses are performed from various locations and over numerous networks, using a world-wide monitoring network.

In June 2005, WatchMouse was selected by FEM Business as one of the 25 most promising, innovative companies in the Netherlands.

Further information can be found at: www.watchmouse.com.

US online stockbroker beats UK counterpart (2005-12-11)

WatchMouse report favourable on availability US stockbroker sites

UTRECHT, NL, 20051206 -- The websites of US online stockbrokers have an excellent availability record. This was one of the findings in a research by WatchMouse, a company providing monitoring services for websites and e-commerce applications worldwide. Of the 29 US websites that were covered by the research, 18 have an uptime percentage of 99.9% or better, and as many as 10 of these reached the perfect 100% mark.

This makes the US online brokers perform significantly better than their UK counterparts: at a similar research in the UK, just one out of 16 websites researched is available continuously, and five are listed at 99.9%. An uptime level of 99.9% is generally seen as the minimum acceptable level and is often quoted in service level agreements (SLAs) with hosting providers or in-house IT departments.

With a growing percentage of the stock market taking place on the Internet, it becomes ever more important to always be available, with the fastest possible response time. Mark Pors, CTO at WatchMouse claims: "Even more than shopping sites, stockbroker sites cannot afford to be unavailable- the stock business is an always-on business"

In order to determine the extent to which the online stockbrokers achieve satisfactory availability, WatchMouse monitored the websites during the official trading hours of the New York (NYSE) and London stock exchange respectively. During a period of two months, October through November, every five minutes, one of WatchMouse’s monitoring stations accessed the customer login page of the website, which was then expected to download within 8 seconds, without any errors.

The differences are remarkable: US brokers have- almost without exception- a very high availability. Ameritrade Plus, Bank One, Charles Schwab, Cititrade, Merrill Lynch, Morgan Stanley, Quick and Reilly, Tradingdirect, USAA, and Wellsfargo, were all continuously available throughout the research period. Another eight sites displayed a 99.9% uptime. Not one of the US brokers reported an uptime below the 99% mark. Still, AB Watley Direct, last on the list at 99.04%, adds up to a 1 hours and 20 minutes downtime per month during trading hours.

In the UK the results are far worse. Only Alliance-Leicester maintained the 100% availability, and five others are at 99.9% or up. Two of the 16 UK brokers were even tagged with a "poor availability". Stocktrade is difficult to reach almost two hours per month and Fasttrade a whopping five hours, both during trading hours.

Still, the online stockbrokers have a significantly higher uptime average than other sectors, such as e-shops, government, and news media. WatchMouse reports on these sectors on a regular basis with their 'availability index'.

Online trading trouble

Mark Pors, emphasises the importance of a high uptime for online stockbrokers: "With online securities transactions, the site should be very responsive. After hitting the 'confirm button', you should never have to question whether the order was placed correctly or not. Online brokers understand the importance of being online, and having a fast response time during trading hours."

A complete overview of the monitoring results of the WatchMouse Site Availability Index, listing the US and UK online brokers, can be found on http://www.watchmouse.com/availabilityindex/2005/uk-us-brokers.php

About WatchMouse

Companies can easily monitor their own Internet sites using WatchMouse's monitoring service. WatchMouse has been monitoring Internet sites and e-commerce applications for companies throughout the world since 2002. WatchMouse has thousands of customers in more than 70 countries. The services supplied by WatchMouse are available in eight languages, and analyses are performed from various locations and over numerous networks, using a world-wide monitoring network.

WatchMouse was voted a Deloitte Rising Star in the Netherlands, as part of the 2005 Fast 50 awards; the list of the 50 fastest growing technology companies.

Further information can be found at: www.watchmouse.com

Spanish e-tailers not ready for Xmas shopping rush (2005-12-09)

WatchMouse research reveals weaknesses of Spanish online shops

Not a single Spanish webshop has an uptime of 100%, and only one out of 10 meets the regular industry availability standards. This is the conclusion of a research by WatchMouse, one of the fastest growing companies in the Netherlands, and winner of the Deloite Rising Star award in 2005.

WatchMouse has been monitoring the main ten Spanish webshops for 38 days, to find out if they are going to be able to handle the Christmas rush. The results of the WatchMouse Availability Index for Spanish e-tailers are poor. "We predict a long wait for internet customers this Christmas season, as Spanish e-shops don't seem to be ready to handle the increased traffic. In a fairly quiet period the performance has already been below standard. The extra volume of online shoppers before Christmas will definitely cause problems, and may even bring some sites down completely", says Mark Pors, CTO WatchMouse.

"According to recent research by the Asociación Española de Comercio Electrónico, retail e-trade in Spain reached some 1.8 billion euros in 2004. So there are big amounts at stake here. If customers cannot get through on a website, or are experiencing a long wait, they often decide to visit a competitive site, causing webshops to lose deals, and even risk losing loyal customers for good."

WatchMouse monitored the top ten Spanish e-tailers continuously from October 25 until December 2. Every 5 minutes, one of WatchMouse’s test stations tried to access the homepage of the site, which is expected to download within 8 seconds, without any errors. An uptime of 99.9% is seen as the minimum acceptable level. This percentage is also often quoted in service level agreements (SLAs) with hosting providers.

Of the ten websites monitored, there was only one meeting this requirement: Carrefour. Mercadona and AreaPC were the sites with the worst availability, showing a respective downtime of an equivalent of 10 and 16 hours over the 38-day testing period. In comparison: the main US e-tailers, such as eBay and Amazon all have 100% uptime, which shows perfect availability can be achieved.

A complete overview of the monitoring results of the 10 sites can be found on http://www.watchmouse.com/availabilityindex/2005/eshops-es.php
WatchMouse will continue to monitor the performance of the ten Spanish etailers over the Christmas period and will publish its findings in January 2006.

About WatchMouse

Companies can easily monitor their own Internet sites using WatchMouse's monitoring service. WatchMouse has been monitoring Internet sites and e-commerce applications for companies throughout the world since 2002. WatchMouse has thousands of customers in more than 70 countries. The services supplied by WatchMouse are available in eight languages, and analyses are performed from various locations and over numerous networks, using a world-wide monitoring network.

Further information can be found at: www.watchmouse.com.

Lazio tops Serie A internet league - Chievo Verona relegated to Web also-rans - (2006-02-07)

UTRECHT, February 7, 2006 - Lazio, AC Milan, Treviso and Empoli FC lead the way in Serie A performance - on the web, rather than the pitch.

WatchMouse, a monitoring service that checks the availability of websites worldwide, spent two months following the twenty clubs in Serie A. If a site is not available or there is no response within eight seconds, this is classified as downtime. The results of the research make worrying reading for some of the world's 'super clubs'.

Only two Serie A teams achieved a 'satisfactory' score - namely more than 99.9% accessibility (or 0.1% downtime), which is seen as the minimum. The 'real' leader of the pack, Juventus, was back in eighth place.

Chievo Verona finds itself adrift in last place. In other words, fans of that club can assume that the club's site will be unavailable for a total of three days a month. In fact their supporters may be better advised to look for another team: with a score of 89.89%, the present number six in the 'real' table, performs not much better than the site of the trattoria round the corner.

The results were not encouraging for Serie A fans. Only Lazio and AC Milan made the 'Champions League' of availability, with scores which exceeded the 99.9% benchmark.

"Of course, scores of 99% look encouraging, concludes Mark Pors, WatchMouse's chief technology officer. "However the internet is an increasingly important communications channel for football clubs. Teams playing at the top level have a supporter base spread across the world, and the Internet is the primary channel for reaching them. Fans wanting to look something up on the internet expect a site to be continuously available. If it's not, they could take their affiliation and custom elsewhere."

Pors is surprised that clubs in Serie A, many of which have a considerable reputation, have not got their house in order on the internet. "For most of the sites, we are seeing an uptime that is poorer than that of many very small companies. Now, more than ever, football is big business with billions of customers. Clubs which fail to understand this will be unable to compete financially or on the pitch in years to come."

A complete overview of results can be found on http://www.watchmouse.com/availabilityindex/2006/serie-a-it.php

About WatchMouse

Companies can easily monitor their own Internet sites using WatchMouse's monitoring service. WatchMouse has been monitoring Internet sites and e-commerce applications for companies throughout the world since 2002. WatchMouse has thousands of customers in more than 70 countries. The services supplied by WatchMouse are available in eight languages, and analyses are performed from various locations and over numerous networks, using a world-wide monitoring network.

Further information can be found at: www.watchmouse.com.

British online holiday shops regularly closed for business (2006-05-17)

WatchMouse research shows that 79% of British vacation booking sites are unavailable for more than 1 hour per month

London, May 16, 2006 – More and more people are booking their holidays online, but the typical 24/7 travel shop in the UK is not the norm yet. Airlines sites did a far better job in the same period.

Only two travel sites are always up and running; ebookers.com and thomascook.com. Travelocity.co.uk, virginholidays.co.uk and expedia.co.uk have a good uptime of over 99,9%. But the rest of the companies researched perform below this industry standard rate, with the worst performer - the site traveljungle.co.uk- being unavailable for an equivalent of almost 3 days (69 hours) per month.

These are the conclusions drawn from the WatchMouse Site Performance Index for British holiday websites, created by WatchMouse, a company supplying monitoring services for websites and e-commerce applications worldwide. In order to determine the extent to which the sites achieve a satisfactory uptime, WatchMouse monitored the sites continuously between April 6 and May 9, 2006.

During the same period, WatchMouse monitored the British airlines websites. These perform better generally: 53% was above industry standards and 7 have perfect 100% availability. This shows the airlines realize the need for having a site that is continuously available.

Mark Pors, Chief Technology Officer at WatchMouse: "Nowadays 24 hour availability is achievable, so there is no need for a site being down. For companies who only do business online, and the website is a single source of revenue, downtime means you have no business."

He continues: “We are now entering the period in which traditionally most of the last minute bookings take place. This means the sites can expect even more traffic, with a negative impact on the site availability. Recent research has shown that e-shoppers are impatient, when a site does not download within 30 seconds, 75% of people take their money elsewhere.* So companies may not get a second chance.”

A complete overview of the monitoring results of the WatchMouse Site Availability Index, listing all the sites monitored, can be found on http://www.watchmouse.com/en/SPI/2006/travelUK.php and http://www.watchmouse.com/en/SPI/2006/airlinesUK.php

*) research by TelecityRedbus, April 2006

(Dutch Only) (2009-12-07)

CDA grote verliezer online - Eén NL staat op nummer één ~ onderzoek WatchMouse toont aan dat niet alle websites van de Nederlandse politieke partijen klaar zijn voor de verkiezingen ~ Utrecht, 18 oktober 2006 – De Nederlandse politiek kan haar online prestaties nog flink verbeteren. Geen enkele website scoort een perfecte 100% bereikbaarheid. Van de websites van de 13 grootste politieke partijen scoren er acht onder de norm wat bereikbaarheid betreft. De Partij voor de Dieren, GroenLinks, Eén NL en D66 doen het wel goed met een bereikbaarheid van boven de 99,9%. De website van het CDA was gedurende de onderzoeksperiode meer dan twee dagen niet bereikbaar en ook de ChristenUnie en de SGP hebben het licht regelmatig op rood staan. Bezoekers van deze sites kregen in totaal meer dan acht uur tijdens de testperiode geen toegang. Dit blijkt uit de tweede WatchMouse Site Performance Index voor Nederlandse politieke partijen. WatchMouse biedt wereldwijd monitoringdiensten aan voor websites en e-commercetoepassingen. Om te controleren of de politieke partijen voldoende uptime scoren in de aanloop naar de verkiezingen, heeft WatchMouse de sites gecontroleerd gedurende de periode van 4 augustus tot 16 oktober 2006. Van downtime is sprake als een site niet bereikbaar is of geen reactie geeft gedurende 8 seconden. Mark Pors, Chief Technology Officer van WatchMouse: "De meeste kiezers, met name jongeren, vertrouwen tegenwoordig op het internet als belangrijkste informatiebron. De bereikbaarheid van de website zou dus een cruciaal onderdeel moeten zijn van de communicatiestrategie van politieke partijen.” “Jan -Peter Balkenende kan, in plaats van zijn virtuele vriendenkring op Hyves uit te breiden, zich beter eens verdiepen in het online visitekaartje van zijn partij”, vervolgt Pors. Een volledige lijst van de WatchMouse Site Performance Index van de 13 politieke partijen is te vinden op http://www.watchmouse.com/nl/SPI/2006/politicsNL.php

Nog steeds ‘werk aan de web-winkel’ in 2006 (2009-12-07)

WatchMouse publiceert voor derde jaar op rij de Site Performance Index voor Nederlandse webwinkels

UTRECHT, 23 november 2006 – De Nederlandse e-shops scoren een hogere uptime in 2006, zo blijkt uit het jaarlijks onderzoek van WatchMouse naar de prestaties van webwinkels in de aanloop naar de feestdagen. In 2005 was de gemiddelde uptime nog 97,69%, dit jaar is het gemiddelde een stuk hoger; 99,43%. Zeker gezien de drukke periode in de aanloop naar Sinterklaas is dit een goed resultaat, maar toch nog steeds onder de industrienorm van 99,9%. Er is dus nog ruimte voor verbetering.

Net als twee jaar geleden in 2004, scoren er wederom zes sites ondanks de grotere drukte, een perfecte uptime. Het betreft de websites van Conrad, Marktplaats, MyLenses, Neckermann, Bol en TakeItNow. De slechts presterende sites dit jaar waren Kijkshop.nl en Mycom.nl met een downtime van meer dan een dag gedurende de meetperiode.

Het hogere gemiddelde komt met name omdat twee negatieve uitschieters van vorig jaar, Rituals.nl en Emmys.nl, het dit jaar een stuk beter doen. Waren deze sites vorig jaar nog respectievelijk meer dan 6 en 7 dagen niet bereikbaar in november, nu scoren ze een uptime van respectievelijk 97,85% en 99,9%.

"Volgens recent onderzoek van Forrester zullen 23% van de mensen dit jaar meer geld online besteden aan inkopen voor de feestdagen dan een jaar geleden. En uit ons onderzoek blijkt dat een aantal partijen zeker effectieve maatregelen heeft genomen om zich hierop voor te bereiden", zegt Mark Pors, CTO van WatchMouse. "Wij zijn blij met deze positieve ontwikkeling. Maar er is zeker nog ruimte voor verbeteringen. Want uiteindelijk behaalt nog steeds de meerderheid van de webwinkels -58%- niet de uptime score van 99,9% die door hosting providers wordt aangehouden als absoluut minimum.”

Vorig jaar bleek de kerstperiode overigens nog drukker dan de periode voor Sinterklaas. Om die reden zal WatchMouse ook in de weken voor kerst blijven monitoren. Vlak voor kerst verwacht WatchMouse met de resultaten te komen van die tweede testperiode.

Het onderzoek liep van 20 oktober t/m 21 november 2006. Van 'downtime' is sprake als een site een foutmelding geeft of de HTML na acht seconden niet ontvangen is, en dit vanuit een tweede meetpunt bevestigd is. Het complete bereikbaarheidsonderzoek is te vinden op: http://www.watchmouse.com/nl/SPI/2006/eshops_NL.php

Over WatchMouse

Bedrijven kunnen eenvoudig de performance van hun websites controleren door gebruik te maken van de monitoringdienst van WatchMouse. Sinds 2002 controleert WatchMouse internet sites en e-commerce toepassingen van bedrijven over de hele wereld. WatchMouse heeft duizenden klanten in meer dan 70 landen. De dienst is beschikbaar in acht talen en de controles worden uitgevoerd vanuit een groot aantal locaties in het wereldwijde WatchMouse monitoring netwerk.

WatchMouse heeft de 'Rising Star' prijs gewonnen in de Deloitte Technology Fast 50 competitie van 2005, de verkiezing van de 50 snelstgroeiende technologiebedrijven in Nederland.

Linux-based website beats Windows-based sites (2007-06-24)

WatchMouse research shows Linux/Apache has less downtime and yields faster websites than Microsoft/IIS

London, June 20, 2007 – Linux websites have better uptime and load faster than Windows-based websites. Research by WatchMouse, a website monitoring company, also shows that web server platform Apache outperforms the Microsoft IIS platform. Therefore, having a Linux website and an Apache webserver platform offers the best choice for professional web pages.

WatchMouse researched the performance of over 1500 websites across different economic sectors in Europe. Most websites in this study are based on either Linux or Windows. Linux offers the best uptime. When looking at web server platforms the overall opinion favours Microsoft IIS and Apache although the latter outperforms the former in this area as well. The research finds that apart from operating system and web server platform, uptime also depends on the country where the server is based.

On average, Windows and Linux are running more than three quarters of all websites. However, there are differences between countries. Poland and Germany favour Linux combined with Apache for their websites while the professional sites in the UK and Sweden rely heavily on Windows/ Microsoft IIS. When looking at the relative performance of the different web server platforms, Linux clearly beats Windows.

One in four of the monitored professional websites have an uptime of 99.9% which suffices for customer satisfaction. Two thirds of the websites have an availability of less than 99.9% which accounts for at least 8 hours downtime per year. According to WatchMouse this is not acceptable.

“Even though the companies in our study seem to prefer Windows over Linux, our research shows they would be better off using Linux/Apache based websites. Research has shown that most web users are very impatient and will wait no longer than four seconds for a webpage to load”, says Mark Pors, Chief Technology Officer at WatchMouse. “Companies need to realise that website uptime is crucial for a healthy customer satisfaction and a solid client base. Organisations need to become more aware of the impact the choice of web server platform can have on their overall availability and performance.”

A complete overview of the monitoring results of the WatchMouse Site Availability Index, listing all the sites monitored, can be found on http://www.watchmouse.com/SPI/

Bereikbaarheid webwinkels afgelopen jaar niet verbeterd (2009-12-07)

WatchMouse publiceert voor vierde keer de Site Performance Index voor Nederlandse webwinkels

Utrecht, 29 november 2007 – De Nederlandse e-shops zijn in 2007 niet veel beter bereikbaar geweest dan in 2006. Dit blijkt uit onderzoek van WatchMouse naar de prestaties van webwinkels. Was in 2006 de gemiddelde uptime 99.43%, in 2007 is dit nauwelijks toegenomen tot 99.47%. Met de feestdagen voor de deur kan dit grote problemen opleveren.

Voor de vierde keer op rij publiceert WatchMouse dit jaar de Site Performance Index voor Nederlandse webwinkels. Van de 38 geteste sites scoren maar 15 websites een uptime van 99.90% of meer. Dit percentage wordt in Service Level Agreements (SLA’s) aangehouden als de minimale gewenste uptime. Slechts vier van hen – Conrad.com, eBay.nl, Marktplaats.nl en Otto.nl – zijn 100% bereikbaar voor de consument. eBay.nl en Otto.nl maken hiermee een flinke sprong voorwaarts. In 2006 scoorden zij nog respectievelijk 99.93% en 99.90%. Conrad.com en Marktplaats.nl zijn voor het tweede achtereenvolgende jaar in de top drie terug te vinden. Bonaparte.nl en Quelle.nl maken een stevige buiteling en vallen uit de top tien van sites die het best presteren.

In de onderste regionen van de lijst zijn geen grote wijzigingen te vinden. Alleen Bruna.nl (95.32%) maakt een gevoelige val. Met een downtime van in totaal meer dan een dag komt het bedrijf als slechtste uit de test. Het bedrijf scoort hiermee een stuk slechter dan in 2006 toen ze nog maar ruim tweeëneenhalf uur niet bereikbaar waren.

"De omzetten van webwinkels laten een gestage groei zien, wat aangeeft dat online winkelen een belangrijke inkomstenbron is voor bedrijven. Een snel ladende site die altijd bereikbaar is, wordt hierdoor steeds belangrijker. Het afgelopen jaar hebben de webwinkels niet veel aan hun bereikbaarheid gedaan. Met de feestdagen voor de deur kan dit grote problemen opleveren", stelt Mark Pors, CTO van WatchMouse.

"Onderzoeksbureau Forrester Research waarschuwt sites om begin december op volle sterkte te zijn omdat dan de drukte pas echt goed begint. Volgens online advertisingbureau TradeDoubler ligt het zwaartepunt op 26 november en 10, 17, 28 en 30 december, omdat consumenten dan naar verwachting de meeste online aankopen zullen doen. Sommige webwinkels zullen de komende dagen daarom nog alle zeilen bij moeten zetten om de bereikbaarheid van hun website te optimaliseren."

Het onderzoek vond plaats in de periode van 20 oktober tot en met 26 november 2007. In deze periode werd elke vijf minuten door één van de controlestations van WatchMouse de homepage van de site opgehaald, zonder plaatjes of frames. Van 'downtime' is sprake als een site een foutmelding geeft of de HTML na acht seconden niet ontvangen is, en dit vanuit een tweede meetpunt bevestigd is. Het complete bereikbaarheidsonderzoek is te vinden op: http://www.watchmouse.com/SPI/2007/eshops_NL.php

WatchMouse Launches API-status.com (2010-01-20)

New Site Monitors and Measures Uptime of 26 Popular API and Cloud Services Websites; Report Reveals Amazon, Google and Yahoo Among the Best and Vimeo, foursquare and Yammer Among the Worst Performers

WatchMouse, a global industry leader in self-service website and application performance monitoring, announced the launch today of API-status.com, a new dedicated website for monitoring and measuring the real time availability and performance of the public APIs of 26 heavily trafficked, popular “cloud computing” mega web services including: Google Search, Google Maps, Bing, Facebook, Twitter, SalesForce, YouTube, Amazon, eBay, PayPal, Wikipedia and others.

API-status.com does a call and check for a valid result on each of the APIs, and if the result is wrong or is received after four seconds, it is noted as an error and unavailable. The percentage of availability or uptime is based on the number of errors reported; details on API-status.com include a seven-day history along with a 24-hour glance and performance indication by country.

"Nearly all websites nowadays include information from outside sources such as maps or social media feeds. It impacts millions of websites worldwide if these services and systems are slow or down and can invoke a global domino effect of breakages and slowness," states Mark Pors, CTO and co-founder of WatchMouse. "The four-second limit on the response time may seem strict, but it is actually a long time, especially when the (mash-up) sites need to do multiple API calls to present a complete page to the visitor."

According to a recent report produced by Forrester Research and Akamai, two seconds was revealed as the new threshold of acceptability for e-commerce web page response times.

30-Day Report Card and Methodology

WatchMouse monitored the availability of 26 API/cloud web services during the period of December 16, 2009 to January 16, 2010. The results found that Yammer API had the lowest availability with 96.06 percent uptime and Amazon, Google Maps, Google Search, last.fm, and Yahoo Maps with the highest availability with 100 percent uptime. In accordance with industry standards, availability of greater than or equal to 99.9 percent is regarded as "good" while anything below 99 percent is regarded as "poor" site uptime. The methodology for testing the sites includes one simple API call and check for a valid result. This typically means an authentication action for most APIs, including a login, followed by a search or listing action, plus a check of the expected result action. The expected result can immediately return as an error or if the expected result action is reported after four seconds, it is also logged as an error. These errors are used to create the percentage of availability or uptime for each of the sites. Each site is checked in real time using the WatchMouse Public Status Pages tool, which can be used to measure and report the availability of any public website. Companies use the tool, which is hosted on the Amazon platform to inform customers and report publicly on the status of their services.

Click here to read the full report of all 26 website services uptime or visit www.API-status.com for real time status and statistical data on each website.

About APIs

An application programming interface (API) is a set of data structures, protocols, routines and tools for accessing a web-based software application. The practice of publishing APIs allows web communities to create an open architecture for sharing content and data between communities and applications. Content that is created in one place can then be dynamically retreived, posted and/or updated in multiple locations on the Web.

About WatchMouse

Founded in 2002, WatchMouse is a global industry leader in self-service website and application performance monitoring. WatchMouse product tests the behavior and availability of websites, services and applications utilizing an infrastructure that includes 42 worldwide remote monitoring stations in 26 countries. Advanced remote monitoring helps eliminate website downtime, allows issues to be identified and resolved quickly and guarantees peace of mind that your website has been thoroughly and externally tested from the user’s perspective. WatchMouse’s web-based products are easily deployed and offer many features including: extensive reporting tools, root cause analysis, automated email and text/SMS alerts. WatchMouse supports Philips, ING, VeriSign and other leading global companies who depend on WatchMouse to provide independent confirmation of both in-house and suppliers’ website performance. WatchMouse is a privately held company headquartered in Utrecht, The Netherlands. Learn more at http://www.watchmouse.com.

Online shops, speed and downtime, getting the facts. (2009-12-07)

These days your website plays an important role in informing potential customers, converting them into customers who want to do business with you, and possibly also conducting the transactions with these customers. In other words: Your business relies ever more on the digital economy, and increasingly on the transactional part of it, the online shop.

These online shops should obviously provide satisfactory performance. Here, both the speed at which they serve pages and their uptime are important. If potential customers cannot reach the online shop, or the online shop is too slow, they are less likely to do business with you now, and in the future. Studies have revealed that half of the people who experience downtime on a website go to its competitor. A majority of online shoppers say performance and uptime influences their choice of online shop.

The amount of revenue that is lost when your website or online shop does not behave properly is hard to quantify. If your website is slow your customers may select a distribution channel that is more costly for you, or they may go to your competitor. Even worse, they may complain about your company to other potential customers. All of this boils down to lost revenue.

A good website is up for at least 99.9% of the time, even though this still represents more than 8 hours in a full year. In a recent survey we found that many websites do not even achieve 99% availability, which corresponds to more than 3 days of downtime a year. As regards speed, if a web page does not load in less than 4 seconds, people start to leave the site, sometimes forever.

How do you make your online shop an efficient experience for your customers? The site must be designed with a strong focus on the customer task. The technology must be no more complex than is relevant. People get annoyed by slow loading Flash intros and complex and slow Flash-based navigation. Take a look at the Google home page; it is one of the fastest websites in the world. On the other hand, you can still use a video clip of a product, if that is relevant to the customer at a particular point in the transaction. You can also use advanced Web 2.0 technology if it makes the user interface more resilient and user-friendly. To experience this, look at Google maps using a dial-up internet connection. It is a really complex user interface, but everything possible has been done to create a positive user experience.

Technology is also important; make sure that you have good service level agreements with all your technology providers. You also want to stress test the site, to see what happens if a lot of people start using it simultaneously. Finally, you should independently monitor the site. When it is time to talk to your hosting company, IT department or website maintainer, it is very helpful to have hard data that reports on the speed and uptime of your online shop.

Peter van Eijk

dr Peter van Eijk is an independent management consultant associated with WatchMouse, the site monitoring experts www.watchmouse.com. He is experienced in setup, management and audits of digital infrastructures. His blog is "Peter's Griddle".