WhatRuns for Chrome

Whether you’re a web developer or just a bit curious, you may be interested in knowing which technologies power certain websites. These can be identified fairly easily, provided you have the right tool at your disposal.

WhatRuns is a nifty Chrome extension that lets you analyze a web page and identify the technologies it uses with just a single mouse click. What’s more, it provides interesting information about these components.

Once you’ve installed the extension, which is a very simple process, you can access it from the new icon in your Chrome toolbar. Basically, you only need to click the icon after you’ve opened the website you are interested in.

The analysis is completed almost instantly, and the information is presented in a very intuitive manner. The technologies are organized into multiple categories, such as widgets, analytics, web framework and advertising.

If you hover over one of the listed technologies, a couple of buttons will pop up; these allow you to visit the component’s official website or view its listing on whatruns.com.

Each technology's page includes a full list of web sites that are known to use it, giving you a good idea of how popular it is. A short description is sometimes displayed.

It has to be said that WhatRuns provides you with a very impressive amount of information, including details about fonts, Wordpress plugins and website themes.

WhatRuns has many potential uses, and you may wish to give it a try even if you aren’t generally interested in web technologies. It is remarkably easy to use, requiring a single mouse click in order to provide you with all the information it can gather about a certain web page.