I used various online tools to find out what server-side and client-side technologies were used to create Stack overflow. These tools included Netcraft.com’s site report generator which can be found at http://toolbar.netcraft.com/site_report and Builtwith.com’s report generator which can be found at http://builtwith.com/.

Two main server side technologies were indicated by the NetCraft analyses report: Extensible markup language (XML) is used by Stack overflow for the storage and transfer of data within and between servers. Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) is used by Stack overflow to ensure data security for its databses which house user-uploaded data.

stackoverflow.com uses Javascript and the Javascript JQuery library to provide client side functionality. The website also utilises AJAX queries to update content on the page from the server without needing to reload the whole page. Using AJAX was a good design choice for stackoverflow.com as it means the client browser doesn't have to wait for all the data to be loaded from the server to be able to interact with the page. (McClure W, et al, 2007) This makes using the website quicker and smoother.