Internet archive service providing persistent access to web resources

摘要

An Internet archive service is disclosed that provides persistent access to Web resources. Time-stamped Uniform Resource Locators ("URLs") that identify Web resources are combined with URL redirect techniques to create an Internet archive service to make the Internet persistent. The present invention provides persistent Web access, without requiring all web servers to directly handle time-stamps in a URL. A user enters a dated URL, for example, using a web browser, which is transmitted to a web server. The Web server receives the URL (containing a time stamp, a relative time-stamp or a variable time-stamp), and retrieves the correct Web page(s) from its own archive, or redirects the user to a predefined Internet archive site. An archive finder may optionally be provided to identify the best Internet archive service where the desired resource has been archived. The Web server interprets the extracted URL in accordance with the selected time stamp format. The present invention ensures that a time-stamped reference to any Web resource refers to the desired material.