xkcd.com

We performed a comprehensive analysis of xkcd.com on 2026-06-29. The website returned an HTTP 200 status code with a server response time of 1136ms. The page is served over HTTP/1.1 protocol with Gzip compression enabled, achieving approximately 60.0% size reduction. The total page weight is 7 KB, and the site is served behind a CDN (Content Delivery Network). The website uses a secure HTTPS connection with a valid SSL certificate issued by GlobalSign nv-sa (OV type). The connection is encrypted using TLS 1.2 with the ECDHE-RSA-CHACHA20-POLY1305 cipher suite and sha256WithRSAEncryption signature algorithm. The certificate covers 1 domain(s) (Subject Alternative Names) and expires on 2027-01-09, which is 194 days from now. The security headers analysis reveals a score of 0/100 (poor). No security headers are configured, which is a significant security concern. However, the site is missing Content-Security-Policy, Strict-Transport-Security (HSTS), X-Frame-Options, X-Content-Type-Options, Referrer-Policy, and Permissions-Policy, which could expose the site and its users to cross-site scripting (XSS), clickjacking, and other web-based attacks. Our technology detection scan identified 1 technologies across 1 categories powering xkcd.com. The detected stack includes Angular. The site uses Angular as its primary framework. Based on our comprehensive analysis of domain age, SSL configuration, email authentication, security headers, and blacklist status, xkcd.com receives an overall trust score of 68/100, classified as "Likely Safe".

After conducting a thorough safety and legitimacy analysis, xkcd.com receives a trust score of 68/100, which places it in the "Likely Safe" category. This score is calculated by evaluating multiple factors including SSL certificate validity, domain registration history, email authentication protocols, security header configuration, and blacklist status across major threat intelligence databases. The analysis identified several positive trust signals: a valid HTTPS connection protecting data in transit, a valid SSL certificate issued by GlobalSign nv-sa with 194 days until expiration, SPF (Sender Policy Framework) email authentication preventing email spoofing, DMARC email authentication with a none policy, and DKIM (DomainKeys Identified Mail) providing cryptographic email verification. Areas of concern include: the absence of a Content-Security-Policy header, which leaves the site more vulnerable to cross-site scripting (XSS) attacks, no X-Frame-Options header, which could allow the site to be embedded in malicious iframes (clickjacking), missing Referrer-Policy, potentially leaking URL information to third parties, the domain's WHOIS information is hidden behind a privacy service, making it harder to verify the owner's identity, and DNSSEC is not enabled, leaving DNS queries vulnerable to spoofing attacks. While these issues don't necessarily indicate malicious intent, they represent areas where the website's security posture could be improved. We checked xkcd.com against 8 major blacklist databases including Google Safe Browsing, Phishtank, Urlhaus, Openphish, Dnsfilter, Spamhaus Dbl, Surbl, and Virustotal. The domain passed all 8 checks with a clean status, meaning it has not been flagged for phishing, malware distribution, spam, or other malicious activities by any of the tested threat intelligence providers.

Our technology detection engine scanned xkcd.com and identified 1 distinct technologies across 1 categories. This analysis is performed by examining HTTP response headers, HTML source code patterns, JavaScript library fingerprints, CSS framework signatures, and DNS records. Framework: Angular — provides the application framework and routing for xkcd.com.

xkcd.com delivers its homepage in 1136ms (server response time), which is considered somewhat slow by industry standards. The total page weight is 7 KB, and we detected 63 resource requests loading assets from 18 third-party domains. A high number of third-party domains can significantly impact page load time due to additional DNS lookups and TLS handshakes required for each domain. The website uses Gzip compression for text-based assets, achieving an estimated 60.0% reduction in transfer size. This reduces bandwidth usage and improves page load times, especially for visitors on slower connections. Asset minification status: 0 out of 1 CSS files and 0 out of 0 JavaScript files are minified. Minifying the remaining 1 unminified file(s) could further reduce page weight by 10-30% for those assets. Minification is a best practice that reduces download sizes without affecting functionality. The site is served through a Content Delivery Network (CDN), which caches static assets at edge servers around the world. This means visitors from different geographic regions receive content from the nearest edge server, significantly reducing latency. CDN usage is particularly important for websites with a global audience, as it can reduce page load times by 40-60% for distant visitors. From an environmental perspective, each page view of xkcd.com produces approximately 0.0g of CO₂, earning a carbon rating of A. This places the website among the cleanest on the web, demonstrating efficient use of server resources and optimized content delivery. For reference, the average web page produces about 0.5g of CO₂ per page view. The page weight of 7 KB is the primary factor in this calculation. Core Web Vitals data from the Chrome User Experience Report (CrUX) is not available for xkcd.com. This typically means the site doesn't have enough real-world Chrome user traffic to generate statistically significant field data, or the domain is not included in the CrUX dataset. Core Web Vitals (LCP, INP, CLS) are important Google ranking factors that measure real user experience.

xkcd.com resolves to the IPv4 address 151.101.64.67 and also supports IPv6 (2a04:4e42:600::67), demonstrating modern network infrastructure readiness. The domain has 4 A record(s) configured. The domain name system is managed by 4 name servers: ns-cloud-d1.googledomains.com, ns-cloud-d2.googledomains.com, ns-cloud-d3.googledomains.com, and ns-cloud-d4.googledomains.com. Having 4 name servers provides good redundancy — if one fails, the others can continue serving DNS queries. The choice of name servers often indicates the DNS hosting provider or CDN service being used. Email for xkcd.com is handled by Google Workspace with 7 MX records configured: aspmx.l.google.com, alt1.aspmx.l.google.com, and alt2.aspmx.l.google.com and 4 more. Multiple MX records provide failover redundancy — if the primary mail server is unavailable, email will be routed to the next available server. SPF (Sender Policy Framework) is configured, which specifies which mail servers are authorized to send email on behalf of this domain. This helps prevent email spoofing and improves email deliverability. DMARC (Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting and Conformance) is configured with a none policy — a monitoring-only setting that doesn't enforce any action on unauthorized emails. DKIM (DomainKeys Identified Mail) is configured, adding a cryptographic signature to outgoing emails that receiving servers can verify to confirm the email hasn't been tampered with in transit. DNSSEC is not enabled for xkcd.com. While not critical for most websites, DNSSEC adds an important security layer by ensuring DNS responses haven't been tampered with during transit. Enabling DNSSEC is recommended for domains handling sensitive data or financial transactions. Our subdomain enumeration scan discovered 4 active subdomains for xkcd.com: blog.xkcd.com, m.xkcd.com, store.xkcd.com, and www.xkcd.com. Active subdomains can reveal the organization's infrastructure, including development environments, API endpoints, and third-party service integrations.

The homepage of xkcd.com contains 210 words of visible text content. This is a relatively short page — adding more descriptive content could improve search engine visibility. The page is structured with 0 H2 headings, 0 H3 headings, 0 H4 headings. The page includes 4 images. All images have proper alt text attributes ✓, which is excellent for both accessibility (screen readers) and SEO (search engines can understand image content). The link structure consists of 24 internal links pointing to other pages on the same domain and 22 external links pointing to third-party websites. There are 0 external JavaScript files, 1 CSS stylesheets, and 0 iframes on the page. The site implements the following web standards and features: robots.txt (controls search engine crawling behavior) and RSS feed for content syndication. Notable missing features: XML Sitemap and Schema.org structured data. Adding these could improve search engine discoverability and rich result eligibility. We detected the following payment methods accepted on xkcd.com: Discover. Offering multiple payment options including credit cards and digital wallets improves customer trust and can increase conversion rates. The website has social media presence across 3 platforms: Facebook (@TheXKCD), Twitter (@xkcd), and Instagram (@xkcd). An active social media presence is a positive trust indicator and helps build brand awareness and customer engagement.

The title tag for xkcd.com is good at 15 characters: "xkcd: 720 Ollie". The length is acceptable, though it may be slightly truncated in some search result displays. No meta description is configured for xkcd.com. This is a critical SEO oversight — without a meta description, Google will auto-generate a snippet from page content, which may not accurately represent the page or entice users to click. Adding a unique, compelling meta description of 120-155 characters is strongly recommended. A favicon is configured. Open Graph meta tags are configured with 2/4 recommended fields: OG title ("720 Ollie..."), OG image (social sharing thumbnail), These tags control how the page appears when shared on Facebook, LinkedIn, and other social media platforms that support the Open Graph protocol. A Twitter Card of type summary_large_image is configured, which controls how links appear when shared on Twitter/X. The "summary_large_image" type displays a large image preview, which typically generates higher engagement rates than the basic card type.