Geek Software of the Week: Xenu’s Web Link Checker! (Xenu Link Sleuth)
OK, so this is mainly a neat tool if you own a web-site, but, hey, a lot of folks do these days! Since re-starting the Video Netcast/Podcast, “Dr. Bill – The Computer Curmudgeon” I figured I needed to “neaten up” and repair my web-site. I lost a TON of images in a server crash, and there were many missing pieces I had to replace. I don’t know about you, but I just hate seeing a web-site that has broken links! It is like the site owner is saying, “I don’t care if my site looks tacky!” Take pride in your site, man! It is a representation of YOU on the web! Anyway, to this end, here is a great tool… by a unique developer! He calls himself “Xenu” and that brings to mind conspiracy theory dewds! But, it is VERY cool software! Check it out!
“Xenu’s Link Sleuth (TM) checks Web sites for broken links. Link verification is done on ‘normal’ links, images, frames, plug-ins, backgrounds, local image maps, style sheets, scripts and java applets. It displays a continously updated list of URLs which you can sort by different criteria. A report can be produced at any time.
Additional features:
Simple, no-frills user-interface
Can re-check broken links (useful for temporary network errors)
Simple report format, can also be e-mailed
Executable file smaller than 1MB
Supports SSL websites (“https:// “)
Partial testing of ftp and gopher sites
Detects and reports redirected URLs
Site Map”