Visual Ping is a web service that allows you to monitor and be notified of the slightest change in a URL. Useful in many situations.
If you’ve ever needed to keep track of changes made to a website, Visual Ping can help. This is a website and browser extension that keeps track of the smallest changes (textual, visual or formatting) that you want to keep track of. It’s a bit like using the Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine, but in real time.
Visual Ping can be used, for example, to monitor stock prices or price fluctuations for products such as PC components or game consoles, but there are many other uses as well. For example, when Covid-19 vaccines began to arrive, many users relied on Visual Ping to find out about available appointments. You can also use Visual Ping to track products that are open for pre-order or when tickets for live events go on sale. And you can use it to detect the slightest changes in an online document. You can even use it to check the status of the Final Fantasy servers. XIV at any time. And if Twitter ever decides to implement an edit feature, you can use it to track various changes.
Visual Ping is available in two formats: a free browser extension and a VisualPin.io webpage. Both versions offer the same functionality but work in slightly different ways.
Visual Ping Browser Extension
The free extension monitors any changes on the site by scanning pages at intervals of up to 5 seconds and notifying you of changes while your computer is on and your browser is open.
The downside is that the process uses up your computer’s resources. Fortunately, the extension also performs up to two server-side checks per day, which can be very handy if you’re not in front of your computer.
You can install the Chrome extension here. Note that the latter works with any Chromium-based browser, such as Edge.
VisualPing.io website
On the other hand, the VisualPing.io site runs completely on the server side and checks if you are in front of the machine or not. You can track up to five URLs at a time for free, and the server checks each page up to once a day.
However, you will have to pay to increase your crawl rate or track more than 5 URLs. Plans start at $10/month to track 25 websites with hourly checks. There are also pay-as-you-go options.
Fortunately, both versions of Visual Ping are free and easy to use. Feel free to test the browser extension to test the service when you’re in front of your PC and want to make a quick decision, and the VisualPing.io site for something that doesn’t require an immediate response. Regardless of the version you are using, enable push notifications in your browser and email client on your phone if you want to respond quickly.