News The internet is disappearing, study says

[tom_mai78101]

The internet is disappearing, a new study has suggested, as web pages and online content is lost.

The web is often thought of as a place where content lasts forever. But vast swathes of its are being lost as pages are deleted or moved, according to new research.

Of the webpages that existed in 2013, for instance, 38 per cent are now lost. Even newer pages are disappearing: 8 per cent of pages that existed in 2023 are no longer available.

Those pages tend to disappear when they are deleted or moved. That happens on otherwise functional websites, the study from the Pew Research Center indicated, rather than happening when whole websites disappear.

The effect means that vast amounts of news and important reference content are disappearing. Some 23 per cent of news pages include at least one broken link, and 21 per cent of government websites, it said – and 54 per cent of Wikipedia pages include a link in their references that no longer exists.

The internet is disappearing, study says

Almost 40% of webpages from 2013 no longer exist a decade on, research finds

www.independent.co.uk

 

[The Helper]

That is why I look at the whos online daily and check any links that are being viewed that are live pages and check the links in them. I will find new links, remove the dead ones or delete the whole post if it is no longer relevant. Even with me doing that every day over the last 2 years I know there are still bunch of dead links in the forums and that is just what happens when you have over 20 years of content on a site.