Under the address field the form says: "Public pages only. Sign-in screens and sites that block automated access may not be captured." This article explains what is behind that sentence.
It visits as a stranger
The capture is done by a browser running on a server, with no account on the site and none of your cookies. It sees what anyone would see who opened the address for the first time.
- A page behind a sign-in shows it the sign-in screen, and that is what gets captured.
- A page that differs by country or by account shows it the version a new visitor gets.
- It does not sign in to anything on your behalf.
Addresses it refuses
- Addresses on a private network, such as "localhost" or an office intranet. The message is "Enter a public website. Private network addresses cannot be analyzed by the server."
- Addresses that carry a username or password. The message is "Use an HTTP or HTTPS URL without a username or password."
- Anything that is not a web address. The message is "Enter a website address, such as example.com."
Sites that turn it away
Some sites block visitors that are not a person in a browser. Vistralo does not try to get round that. The capture fails and the project says so.
Public is not the same as yours
A page being public does not give you the right to reuse its design, text, images or code. A Visual brief is for studying a page. Capture only what you are entitled to look at this way.
When the page is not public
Open it yourself, record it with "Record an AI walkthrough", and give the walkthrough to whoever needs it. See Record your first walkthrough.