The newly launched Orb app, created by the founders of Speedtest and Down Detector, provides a detailed analysis of internet connection health that extends well beyond measuring speed. This innovative tool evaluates responsiveness, reliability, and overall performance ratings to enhance the user experience.
The developers are targeting enterprise-level users and planning features such as real-time remote connection monitoring. When users encounter issues accessing their favorite websites, they often turn to Down Detector to see if the site is down.
Similarly, when struggling with slow browsing, Speedtest quickly assesses connection speed. The creators behind these platforms have taken a significant step forward by designing Orb, which serves as a comprehensive tool for analyzing various aspects of internet connectivity.
Orb is now available on most major platforms and tracks multiple data points over specified time intervals. It provides ratings from 1 to 100 across crucial connection health categories.
The development team has ambitious plans for future features, aimed at enhancing user insights. Doug Suttles, former CEO of Ookla, and his long-time colleague Jamie Steven emphasize that simply reporting bandwidth misses important performance factors that influence the internet experience.
Orb aims to capture these less visible metrics over extended periods, from one minute to 24 hours. In addition to speed, it evaluates responsiveness by measuring signal latency, jitter, and packet loss—key components contributing to lag.
Reliability is assessed based on responsiveness over time, and the app delivers an overall rating. If a user’s rating is unsatisfactory, Orb provides further explanations through a language model interface.
Remarkably, Suttles and his team skipped the beta testing phase and made the app available to the public for free. Although Orb will be free for personal use, the company is eyeing potential revenue from large-scale industry adoption.
The app supports various operating systems, making it versatile enough for numerous devices, including Android, Windows, Linux, IoT gadgets, and smart doorbells. Suttles describes the consumer app as a vital platform for research, development, and marketing, facilitating its relevance in the industry.
The team has a backlog of features in development, one of which includes a time-limited link allowing technicians to view connection health in real-time. This feature aims to streamline the troubleshooting process, benefiting both users and service providers.
Orb is available for download on most platforms, and users can join the community for ongoing discussions and support.
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