Shortly after creation somehow the word got out on some popular Apple related forum websites and overnight the traffic to the site went through the roof. The server at the time, unable to handle the amount of traffic, was struggling to keep up and crashed within days. Every time after restarting the server it would go down again within hours, at this time it was decided to move the site to a professional off-site server. With better hardware and virtually unlimited bandwidth available the site popularity kept increasing every month, to the point where it was agreed the simple (and terrible looking) site interface needed some attention, on top of that daily e-mails with requests for new features and suggestions flooded the inbox. One of the biggest requests was a place to register stolen products, this has been a feature on the site ever since and has seen thousands of registrations from all over the world. This is when it became clear this pet project would become a full-time hobby and it was no longer manageable by just one person. Some fresh minds joined the team to help out with design, coding, database support, testing etc.
We quickly noticed the majority of the page traffic came from sales and auction sites. Users wanted to know if the product for sale was what the seller claimed it to be, if it met all the original specifications and if that product was registered as stolen. We now work closely with numerous sites like that where the serial number can be directly checked and verified through a link to our database.
The original purpose of this site was in demand too, service providers from all over the world contacted us and we now work with many of them, providing the tools needed to make their job faster and easier.
The explosive growth and popularity of the site came with a problem however. The site was free, unlimited searches could be performed and no paid advertisements or pop-ups were crowding the pages. Then promptly the site was disabled by the hosting provider. It turned out the traffic was so high the bandwidth limits were exceeded (up to five times the allowed amount) and the site was putting significant strain on the hosting server. After moving to a hosting provider that allowed for the bandwidth we needed… same thing happened again within just a few months. The options were clear; pay for a dedicated server or limit the amount of searches each user could do. It was decided to go with the second option. Advertisements are now found on the page as well but only those that are willing to match the website design and are relevant to the site audience. This worked out very well.
Appleserialnumberinfo.com attempts to support all major Apple products dating back to the year 2000, this is done by help from the users. Every day many users submit their hardware info to help our database become bigger, better and more reliable. Without that submitted information the site would not be what it is today.
This way it's easier to track down production issues, production numbers, determine warranty etc.
Serial numbers are valuable in quality control, as once a defect is found in the production of a particular batch of product, the serial number will quickly identify which units are affected. Serial numbers are also used as a deterrent against theft and counterfeit products in that serial numbers can be recorded, and stolen or otherwise irregular goods can be identified. In your Mac's case it holds a lot more info.
A serial number only holds hardware information, not personal information.
Only the store where the hardware was purchased holds records with the name, purchase date etc.
Appleserialnumberinfo.com can only read out the hardware information since we are not linked to any
store databases.
