Comments on: Comments on 5284

Post number 5284

Steven Den Beste — Mon, 15 Jan 2001 11:49:21 -0800

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.

By: Steven Den Beste

Steven Den Beste — Mon, 15 Jan 2001 11:53:28 -0800

Here's the guy's personal account.

By: gluechunk

gluechunk — Mon, 15 Jan 2001 12:01:24 -0800

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.

By: holloway

holloway — Mon, 15 Jan 2001 12:03:21 -0800

Yay for Google! When a site gets Slashdotted the Google cache is still up. Aliens bless google cache.

By: Aaaugh!

Aaaugh! — Mon, 15 Jan 2001 12:30:46 -0800

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).

By: gluechunk

gluechunk — Mon, 15 Jan 2001 12:48:08 -0800

Wow, thanks aaugh. Here's a better example: the MetaFilter Time Machine. Recall those fun-filled post-election days.

By: norm

norm — Mon, 15 Jan 2001 12:53:30 -0800

That's pretty crazy. How does one make Google create a cache?

By: gluechunk

gluechunk — Mon, 15 Jan 2001 13:03:36 -0800

for google: http://www.google.com/search?q=cache:www.metafilter.com/+&hl=en or something like that.

By: norm

norm — Mon, 15 Jan 2001 13:13:56 -0800

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.

By: Xelf

Xelf — Mon, 15 Jan 2001 13:37:21 -0800

Try their URL submission page.

By: cCranium

cCranium — Mon, 15 Jan 2001 13:46:37 -0800

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. :-)

By: Byun-o-matic

Byun-o-matic — Mon, 15 Jan 2001 14:35:29 -0800

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.

By: Steven Den Beste

Steven Den Beste — Mon, 15 Jan 2001 15:06:12 -0800

Byun, he had a backup -- but BOTH HD's crashed and burned.

By: maura

maura — Mon, 15 Jan 2001 15:55:55 -0800

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)...

By: justnobody

justnobody — Mon, 15 Jan 2001 16:02:58 -0800

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!

By: Optamystic

Optamystic — Mon, 15 Jan 2001 18:01:04 -0800

Sheesh, maura....the guy found something valuable that he thought he had lost. Personally, I'm happy for him.

By: Steven Den Beste

Steven Den Beste — Mon, 15 Jan 2001 21:06:18 -0800

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?

By: mathowie

mathowie — Mon, 15 Jan 2001 22:20:07 -0800

It may be a good story, but come on, is it really wired news worthy? It must have been a slow news day.

By: daveadams

daveadams — Tue, 16 Jan 2001 11:10:29 -0800

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.