Every website exists on a server, somewhere in the world. I like to know where my websites are located – mostly because that indicates when I can expect responses to my support requests, among other things. Until I found Flagfox for Firefox, finding this information meant doing a lot of research and sometimes coming up completely empty. Flagfox means that every time I want this information, it’s there at a click of my mouse.

Flagfox is a small add on that puts a flag in your browser’s navigation bar, indicating what country the server your current website exists in. If you want further information, clicking the flag will open a new tab with Flagfox’s default search tool, Geotool. With this, you can see the hose name, the continent, the country, all the way down to the city that your server is in. I was shocked to find out that the server my personal website is hosted on is in none other than Houston, TX – where I grew up. And the zoom in tool is so precise that I could zoom right in to the building that my server is housed in and realize with a shock that I’d driven past it for years. Long before I ever had it, of course, but still, it was a surprise.

I played with the add on for almost half an hour, loading my favorite sites and seeing where they’re located. It’s fun, and it gives you information that can mean the difference between getting an answer to your support ticket in an hour, or twelve hours.

Oh, by the way? dotTech’s server is based in Albany, NY. Who knew? (Ashraf.)

Price: Free

Version reviewed: 4.2.1

Requires: Firefox

Flagfox at Firefox Add-ons