We have become increasingly dependant on our online services and when they go down , we are lost and the world loses meaning. Ok.. maybe its not that bad but we still want to know whether the service is down or it's just us.

The next time your online service isn't working, check out their online services status dashboard and rest easy knowing its not your fault (unless your internet is down, in which case you should panic).

Is WhatsApp down? 

You can check the status of the WhatsApp service by visiting their special Twitter account page (link)

Is Google Apps down?

You can check the status of Google Apps services by visiting their special Service Status Dashboard website (link)

Is Microsoft Live Down?

You can check the status of Microsoft services by visiting their special Service Status Dashboard website (link)

Is Apple down?

As a Macbook owner and an iPhone user, I get the a cold sweat down my back when key Apple services are down. Is iMessage down or is it just me? Is Facetime down or is it my internet connection?

All good questions that can be easily answered by visiting Apple's detailed service status dashboard site (link).

Is Twitter down?

Everyone loves Twitter and it now breaks news faster than any other news distribution outlet. When it goes down, many news agencies panic. If you want to know if Twitter is really down, head over to their service status page (link).

Is CloudFlare down?

CloudFlare has become the last line of defence between many small or medium internet sites and hackers. Do you want to know if their service is operating fully, check out their special webpage (link).

In the above image, you can see a couple of sites re-routing traffic to other locations. This could be because of scheduled maintenance.