It does seem similar. I actually like Detexify's interface a little bit more because it doesn't require pressing a button after you've drawn your character, although I imagine that is a matter of preference.

Detexify's popularity and utility shows that this sort of thing could be very useful--I suspect I might end up using it myself in the future.

For me, http://shapecatcher.com/ returns better results. Also, I'd suggest bookmarking option for search results.

Ditto, on both counts. I think we crashed it.

Yup, I get Error: error.

shapecatcher.com works, www.shapecatcher.com does not.

The ajax urls are borked.