A method and apparatus for resolving domain names of persistent Web resources

摘要

A method and apparatus are disclosed for providing persistent storage of Web resources. Uniform Resource Locators ("URLs") that identify Web resources are augmented to include a time stamp. A web browser and a web server are disclosed that accommodate a time stamp parameter and allow a user to refer to any Web address with a precise target date. The disclosed Web browser can optionally include a mechanism to facilitate the specification of the desired date and time, or the user can manually append the time stamp to the URL indicated in the "Location" window of the browser. The persistent Web servers (i) receive URLs containing a time stamp, (ii) extract the time stamp, (iii) retrieve the correct Web page from the archive, and (iv) return the requested page to the client. The persistent Web servers include a persistent archive for storing all of the versions of Web resources that will be persistently available to Web users. A persistent domain name server (PDNS) allows a user to refer to historical Web resources. The persistent domain name server (PDNS) utilizes the dated URL to determine where the historical information of a given company is located following a domain name change for the requested time period and translates the request to a new machine containing the historical information of the company.