How to Find Lost Web Pages

One of the most annoying things that can happen while searching for information online is clicking a link that no longer exists. Instead of the helpful result you were looking for, you get an error message or blank page. This typically happens when a site shuts down, the page moves to a new address, a server crashes or there's too much traffic going to the page at one time. Luckily, there may be a way to retrieve the original data, even if the page no longer exists.

Moved or Deleted Pages

Often times, websites undergo major upgrades and never think twice about providing a redirection service from their old links to their new ones. For instance, a page containing information about hot dogs may have changed addresses from hotdog.information.com to weeners.information.com. When you try to visit the first page from a search result, it'll appear as if the page no longer exists at all.

This is where caching comes into play. Google and Yahoo both cache web pages, which means they store a copy of the page as it was when search engine last indexed the page. Even though the original site's server no longer has a copy of the page, the search engine might.

First, open either Google or Yahoo and enter your search term. Under each result that appears, you will notice the word Cached. If you run into a missing page, return to your search result, which you can easily do by pressing the back button or arrow on your browser window, and press the Cached link under the desired search result.

The original page will appear. However, there are a few problems you may encounter. Links on the web page may not work. Images, formatting and videos may look mangled or not appear at all. The object of using cached pages is to access the original text.

Temporarily Offline

When a web page suddenly becomes popular, the server may not be able to handle the increased bandwidth. The result - the page is temporarily offline until a low traffic time. You can still visit the page, but it takes a third party helping hand to load it for you. Coral Cache, or Coral for short, lets you access a mirror image of the original site or page. It works similar to search engines caching information, but all original images and formatting remain intact typically.

There are two ways to take advantage of Coral Cache. First, copy the web address of the site you want to visit in your browser's address bar. Next, type the following at the end of the address - .nyud.net. If you have problems loading a page with a long link, try using the main web site address with the .nyud.net.

Second, you can load web sites straight from Coral's website. Visit the website and look under the Using Coral section. Copy or type the URL of the page you want to visit in the address box. By default, you'll see www.cnn.com in the box. Press OK to visit Coral's version of the page.

Keep in mind that these methods may not always work. Search engines may not have a cached version or least not a legible version of the page. If the main site still exists, but certain pages are missing, try emailing the owner of the site to see if the data still exists anywhere.