History

This project started as Homm – homm.co.uk – which is a property portal Homm features details of many external companies – estate agents, property developers, builders etc.

One of the problems with running a directory like that is keeping website links up to date. Websites come and go and change so that links become invalid.

So we built a system that continuously takes screenshots of the websites it knows about. That way, if a site changes or stops existing we see it.

We found that archiving the historic screenshots of companies is actually quite useful because it’s interesting to see how any company is evolving by the content of its website. By displaying screenshots of a company together they are still advertising the company.

1-2-3-4-5.com became the directory of theses screenshots, but the biggest problem with 1-2-3-4-5 is how you say it? It looks good, but it’s very difficult to name.

Perhaps Site Atlas is a better name – the other difference is that 1-2-3-4-5.com was entirely home-brew – Site Atlas has been created using WordPress.