Google cache saves web log from disk crash.

January 15, 2001 11:49 AM

Google cache saves web log from disk crash. How the heck much disk space do those guys have, anyway? How can anyone cache the whole web? Sheesh.
posted by Steven Den Beste (18 comments total)

Here's the guy's personal account.
posted by Steven Den Beste at 11:53 AM on January 15, 2001

Hm, so google has between four and five terabytes of disk space? You can't access cached pages in the same way, but supposedly Alexa gathers 118 gigabytes per day.
posted by gluechunk at 12:01 PM on January 15, 2001

Yay for Google!

When a site gets Slashdotted the Google cache is still up. Aliens bless google cache.
posted by holloway at 12:03 PM on January 15, 2001

Actually, you can access Alexa's cache without having their browser plugin installed. You just need to enter a URL like this:
http://archive.alexa.com/cgi-bin/fetch_url?url=http://insert_url_here (example).
posted by Aaaugh! at 12:30 PM on January 15, 2001

Wow, thanks aaugh. Here's a better example: the MetaFilter Time Machine. Recall those fun-filled post-election days.
posted by gluechunk at 12:48 PM on January 15, 2001

That's pretty crazy. How does one make Google create a cache?
posted by norm at 12:53 PM on January 15, 2001

for google: http://www.google.com/search?q=cache:www.metafilter.com/+&hl=en or something like that.
posted by gluechunk at 1:03 PM on January 15, 2001

That shows their cache, I was wondering if there was an easy way to have Google go to a site and cache it (I specifically wanted to cache a Molly Ivins article, seeing as it has no (free) archive.
posted by norm at 1:13 PM on January 15, 2001

Try their URL submission page.
posted by Xelf at 1:37 PM on January 15, 2001 [1 favorite]

norm: Google caches as it spiders. So when it discovers a page it adds to its index, it copies it to the cache.

That particular article may be uncachable. As was pointed out in the article, there are various commands you can give to search robots and to browsers, some of them describe what pages can and can't be indexed, some describe what pages can and can't be cached, and a whole bunch of them do stuff that I don't know about. :-)

posted by cCranium at 1:46 PM on January 15, 2001

Yay for Google, but...the guy's hard drive died, and with the very real danger of losing his whole website altogether, he didn't back up the server files onto another disk? Hm. Anyway, I've used Google on a number of occasions for that "NY Times registration required" evasive maneuver, in addition to finding quite a few pages of info that no longer existed at their original sites, so, as mentioned above, yay for Google.
posted by Byun-o-matic at 2:35 PM on January 15, 2001

Byun, he had a backup -- but BOTH HD's crashed and burned.
posted by Steven Den Beste at 3:06 PM on January 15, 2001

oh my gosh, was it a slow news day or something? i mean, jeezum crow. this piece is both a google blowjob and the topical equivalent of a boring post to a weblog ('dsl/blogger/webhosting complaints' division)...
posted by maura at 3:55 PM on January 15, 2001

I think it's good, for things like that, but it's also embarrassing when silly things you've said are cached forever...argh! delete me, delete me now!
posted by justnobody at 4:02 PM on January 15, 2001

Sheesh, maura....the guy found something valuable that he thought he had lost. Personally, I'm happy for him.
posted by Optamystic at 6:01 PM on January 15, 2001

Maura, it's got suspense, action, a happy ending, reuniting with a loved one, weblogs, computers, and no mention of Ralph Nader. What else could you ask for from a web link?
posted by Steven Den Beste at 9:06 PM on January 15, 2001

It may be a good story, but come on, is it really wired news worthy? It must have been a slow news day.
posted by mathowie at 10:20 PM on January 15, 2001

If you come across a page that's recently disappeared or if its server is down, I created this little bookmarklet to do the work of finding it in Google's cache for you.
posted by daveadams at 11:10 AM on January 16, 2001