IP Lookup Services: A Short Critique

by James

There are loads of “what’s my IP” websites out there, but I’ve never seen one that actually does what I want it to. In my mind, a good IP lookup site should do just two things:

  1. Tell me my IP address
  2. Let me copy my IP address with minimum fuss.

That’ll be all, thank you: I don’t need to know where in the UK I’m based (I, uh, know that already…thanks — and normally the information is wrong, anyway). I don’t need a ‘wealth’ of useful information, either: most of it is superfluous and just gets in the way.

How can websites that only have to accomplish one task get it so wrong? From a usability point of view, most of these websites are awful. More features are not better — simplicity is key.