When I run across a website that's visually appealing, functional, and fast, I like to find out what technology powers that site. I've found BuiltWith.com a helpful resource for finding this information. Enter a website address, and BuiltWith lists return's the site's Technology Profile. This profile includes details such as the server software, analytics platform, blog platform, aggregation (such as RSS), and document information (such as JavaScript and CSS).
Here's a snippet from the Technology Profile for OptimWise.com. It accurately detected that OptimWise runs on WordPress 3.0.
Click the Build Profile tab, and BuiltWith serves up a list of resources for creating a similar site. Some resources are online, others are books. Here's a snippet from the Build Profile for OptimWise.com:
The BuiltWith Internet Technology Usage Statistics area of the site shows you trends and popularity stats about many web technologies. A few interesting categories: ads, analytics, CDN, CMS, feeds, framework, media, web server, and server.
Here's a graph from BuiltWith. As you can see, OptimWise.com is in good company by running on WordPress:
I've stuck to the basic information they provide for free, but there are paid areas of the site as well.
Knowledge is power, and it can be used for good or evil. You can use the site profile for research or for planning your own site, but you could also determine how to attack a website by exploiting vulnerabilities in the technologies that run the site. As with any info you find online, you choose how to use it.
Please share your thoughts in comments! As always, contact OptimWise for more information or assistance!
There is one more service for technologies analyze - https://seomon.com/domain/optimwise.com/
It also allows reverse technologies research - find sites based on technology.
Thanks for recommending seomon.com, Alex. It doesn't hurt to have another analysis tool.