Scan a site

The Independent (independent.co.uk) looks like a blog or news site, is ranked in the top 1,000 sites and was registered in 1996. It is built with Firebase and Varnish; we found no traces of an AI site builder.

Popularity

Website Traffic Checker

Among the top 1K sites.

A popularity band, not a visit count.

Tranco: #733 · Chrome UX Report: Top 5,000 · Majestic Million: #255

Each list, with its date
SourceSaysAs of
TrancoA research ranking that combines several traffic and link sources, published daily.#733list of 7 Oct 2026
Chrome UX ReportRank buckets from Google’s real Chrome traffic, published monthly.Top 5,000Aug 2026
Majestic MillionRanks sites by how many separate networks link to them (links, not visits), published daily. CC BY 3.0#255list of 8 Oct 2026

Technology

Tech Stack Checker

Built with Firebase and Varnish.

  • FirebaseBackendShow evidenceHide evidence
    Evidence · page source, line 126
    …"authDomain":"independent-media-identity.firebaseapp.com","projectId":"independent-media-identit…
    Popular sites using Firebase Is this wrong? Report it
  • VarnishWeb serverShow evidenceHide evidence
    Evidence · response header
    via: 1.1 varnish, 1.1 varnish
    Popular sites using Varnish Is this wrong? Report it
Everything else it uses (19)

Around it: CDN, DNS, Email, Tag manager and more.

Business tools can stay listed after a site stops using them.

Trust signals

Website Trust Checker

2 of 7 trust signals found on the home page.

Signals, not a judgement: missing details are common on small, honest sites.

  • Domain registered2 Feb 1996, 30 years agoNoted
  • HTTPSLoads over HTTPS with a valid certificateFound
  • Contact detailsNo email or phone on the home pageNot found
  • Privacy policyLinked from the home page, and the page opensFound
  • TermsNot linked on its own; a legal page is linked, which may hold itPartly
  • Security filterNot blocked by Cloudflare’s security filter and Quad9’s security filterNoted
Every signal we looked at

On the site

  • Contact pageLinked from the home page, and the page opensFound
  • About pageNo link found on the home pageNot found
  • Privacy policyLinked from the home page, and the page opensFound
  • TermsNot linked on its own; a legal page is linked, which may hold itPartly
  • Refund or returns policyNo link found on the home pageNot found
  • Contact detailsNo email or phone on the home pageNot found
  • Company detailsName: The IndependentPartly
  • Payment providersNone on the home pageNoted
  • Trackers2 analytics and advertising tools: Google Ad Manager, TaboolaNoted

Behind the site

  • Security filterNot blocked by Cloudflare’s security filter and Quad9’s security filterNotedCloudflare’s security filter and Quad9’s security filter
  • Domain registered2 Feb 1996, 30 years agoNoteddomain registry
  • HTTPSLoads over HTTPS with a valid certificateFound
  • Protective settings6 of 6 in placeFound
  • Email protectionProtected against forged emailFoundDNS records

A second opinion on its security setup: Mozilla’s HTTP Observatory grades the site when you open it. Ten checks before you buy · A signal looks wrong? Report it

What it is

Website Summary

Looks like: Blog or news site.

In its own wordsIndependent Asia EditionThe latest breaking news, comment and features from The Independent.

Our reading of the page, high confidence.

Show evidence (4)Hide evidence
Exhibit 1 · Wikidata
Q11149: The Independent, daily newspaper
Exhibit 2 · page source, line 1
<link rel="alternate" href="https://www.independent.co.uk/asia/rss">
Exhibit 3 · its own title or description
Independent Asia Edition · The Independent · The latest breaking news, comment and features from The Independent.
Exhibit 4 · page source, line 209
<a href="/news/world/australasia/adidas-sue-white-fox-court-four-stripes-design-b3064073.html"></a>
Is this wrong? Report it

Who is behind it

  • structured dataThe Independent
  • WikidataThe Independent

Confirmed by 2 independent sources: structured data and Wikidata.

Wikidata: Owned by Alexander Lebedev; based in London, United Kingdom; founded by Andreas Whittam Smith.

Its Facebook and X accounts are the ones Wikidata lists.

Show evidence (2)Hide evidence
Exhibit 1 · page source, line 1
"name": "The Independent"
Exhibit 2 · Wikidata
Q11149: The Independent
Is this wrong? Report it

Each name is quoted from its source. A brand and the company that owns it often go by different names.

More about it: Wikidata, profiles, AI use, page facts

In Wikidata

Wikidata, the free knowledge base behind Wikipedia, lists this domain as the official website of these items. Volunteers write it; each item shows its sources.

Find them on

The profiles its home page links. We haven’t checked who runs them.

AI use

  • AI training: doesn’t ask AI training crawlers to stay away.
  • AI assistants: may read it for the people who ask them.

What its robots.txt and robots tags ask of AI crawlers. Each crawler chooses whether to follow it.

Site name
The Independent
Language
English (en)
What it tells search engines
Organization

Named in its structured data

  • OrganizationThe Independent

Read from what the page says about itself; we haven’t checked whether it’s true.

Built with AI?

AI Website Detector

No AI builder traces found.

Coding tools such as Cursor leave no traces, so this doesn’t mean a person made it.

AI traces: None found

How we know

AI site builders leave traces in the sites they make. We look for the traces of 53 of them and show every match with the line it came from, so you can check it yourself.

We test this on 2,312 sites whose makers we know, and publish what we get wrong.

How we test it · Every builder we know · How to tell if a site was built with AI

Score breakdown

Site Score

88 of 100: strong trust signals.

How established and checkable it is; AI traces carry no weight.

88OF 100
TransparencyContact, policies and about page18 / 30
Track recordHow long the domain has existed25 / 25
PopularityIts place in public rankings20 / 20
Security and setupHTTPS and standard protections15 / 15
ConsistencyName, description and what it tells search engines10 / 10
Why each part scored what it did
TransparencyContact, policies and about page18 / 30contact page linked · email and phone not both given · privacy policy linked · terms: not linked on its own; a legal page is linked, which may hold it · no payments seen, so no refund policy needed · no about page link
Track recordHow long the domain has existed25 / 25domain registered 30 years ago
PopularityIts place in public rankings20 / 20Top 1K in a popularity list
Security and setupHTTPS and standard protections15 / 15loads over HTTPS · sends visitors to HTTPS · always uses HTTPS · protective settings
ConsistencyName, description and what it tells search engines10 / 10site name matches the domain · describes itself · tells search engines what it is

A high score isn’t a promise that a business is honest. How the score works.

Domain history

Domain History

Registered in 1996; first archived in 1998.

  1. Domain registeredRDAP
  2. First captured by the web archiveInternet Archive
  3. This scanCheckAnySite

In the web archive: captured in 29 of 29 years · see the first capture

  1. 1998: captured
  2. 1999: captured
  3. 2000: captured
  4. 2001: captured
  5. 2002: captured
  6. 2003: captured
  7. 2004: captured
  8. 2005: captured
  9. 2006: captured
  10. 2007: captured
  11. 2008: captured
  12. 2009: captured
  13. 2010: captured
  14. 2011: captured
  15. 2012: captured
  16. 2013: captured
  17. 2014: captured
  18. 2015: captured
  19. 2016: captured
  20. 2017: captured
  21. 2018: captured
  22. 2019: captured
  23. 2020: captured
  24. 2021: captured
  25. 2022: captured
  26. 2023: captured
  27. 2024: captured
  28. 2025: captured
  29. 2026: captured
Changes, earlier scans and alerts
Since our previous scan
This is our first scan of the site.

How we scanned it

Only from what anyone can see: the site’s public pages and public records.

  • Politely. Our scanner, CheckAnySiteBot, says who it is and follows the site’s robots.txt.
  • With sources. Every fact above says where it came from and when.
  • Without guessing. When we couldn’t check something, we say so.
This scan, in numbers

927 checks on 10 Oct 2026, with version 0.5.0 of our checks and version 1.1 of the score.

How we work · What each version changed · About our scanner

Quick look

Built with AI?

None foundWe found no AI builder traces.

“None found” never means “made by a person”: coding assistants leave no traces.

All the evidence →

Related

Quick look

How popular is it?

Top 1KBy the best of 3 public lists.

  • Tranco#733list of 7 Oct 2026
  • Chrome UX ReportTop 5,000Aug 2026
  • Majestic Million#255list of 8 Oct 2026

A popularity band, never a visit count.

The popularity section →

Related

Quick look

What is it built with?

Backend
Firebase
Web server
Varnish

And 19 more around it (CDN, DNS, Email, Tag manager), in the section.

Each with its evidence →

Related

Quick look

Which trust signals does it show?

On the site

  • Contact pageFound
  • About pageNot found
  • Privacy policyFound
  • TermsPartly
  • Refund or returns policyNot found
  • Contact detailsNot found
  • Company detailsPartly
  • Payment providersNoted
  • TrackersNoted

Behind the site

  • Security filterNoted
  • Domain registeredNoted
  • HTTPSFound
  • Security headersFound
  • Software versionsNoted
  • NetworkNoted
  • Email setupFound
  • First certificateCouldn’t check
  • DNSSECNot found
  • Certificate authoritiesFound
  • Security contactFound

Signals, not a judgement: missing details are common on small, honest sites.

Every signal with its source →

Related

How has it changed? →
Quick look

How does it add up?

88OF 100

Strong trust signals. An open formula (v1.1): every point comes from a finding above. AI traces carry no weight.

TransparencyContact, policies and about page18 / 30
Track recordHow long the domain has existed25 / 25
PopularityIts place in public rankings20 / 20
Security and setupHTTPS and standard protections15 / 15
ConsistencyName, description and what it tells search engines10 / 10
Why each part scored what it did →

Related

More sites like this: blog or news site

Automated findings from the site’s public home page and public records, as of 10 Oct 2026. They describe what we found, not the people or business behind the site, and they may be incomplete or out of date. This is information, not advice. Terms · Report an error

What this scan can’t tell you
  • Whether the business is real, honest or delivers what it sells.
  • Whether a site was made with AI when no traces were left: coding assistants and hand edits leave none.
  • How many people visit: we show popularity bands from public lists, not visits.
  • Anything beyond the home page as it was at the time of the scan.

Is this your site? Ask for a correction.

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The result describes what we found on 10 Oct 2026, with evidence.

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One scan answers everything: AI traces, popularity, technology, trust signals, how the site describes itself, a score and its history. A quick check only decides which answer comes first. We read public pages as CheckAnySiteBot and follow robots.txt.