How Old Is That Web Page?

As the Web ages, old outdated pages collect like cobwebs. The problem is that you don't always know when the content was published or was last updated.

One method of for determining the last modified date uses Javascript. Type javascript:alert(document.lastModified) into the address bar and press Enter. A pop-up window will appear with the date and time of the page's last update.

To the left is an example result for an old Web page of mine from eleven years ago.

Unfortunately this does not work if the page has any dynamic elements that automaticly update on page load. Many modern pages are dynamic but for the true cobwebs this function will work.


Another way to filter out older Web pages is on Google.com. Under "Show options" you can choose to filter results as follows:

• Latest
• Past 24 hours
• Past week
• Past year
• Specific date range

If you search in the "Past 24 hours" the results will display how many hours ago the page was found by Google.  Of course this is accurate only for the major sites that are frequently indexed and can be very helpful when searching for current events.

This functionality can also be very useful for finding recent changes to competitor sites or for monitoring timely posting by your own content producers.