Google Includes "Retrieved Date" To Its Cache Pages

::: Google Has Finally Included The "Retrieved Date" To Its Cache Pages :::

Hi Forum-Mates,

It's Easier To Monitor Page Updates Now!

As of last night 07/28/04 we noticed a change made by Google.

They have included the retrieved date of the page in their cache.

Since we monitor Googlebot's date and time it arrives, we can say that these times are accurate to the second (give or take 1 or 2 seconds on some occasions).

You should now be able to monitor just how long it takes for your individual pages to be updated by Google.

Is it hourly? Daily? Bi-weekly? Weekly? Every 10 days?

Let us know by posting your last update date here now ... We'd love to see everyone compare dates!


::: For Your Information :::

Your Friends,

Sharon and Roy Montero

 

not bad I like it

 

This is G o o g l e's cache of http://www.4freephonebillanalysis.com/ as retrieved on Jul 26, 2004 23:41:51 GMT.

This is G o o g l e's cache of http://www.4freephonebillanalysis.com/internationalcalls/ as retrieved on Jul 27, 2004 01:11:22 GMT.

This is G o o g l e's cache of http://www.4freephonebillanalysis.com/dialarounds/ as retrieved on Jul 18, 2004 13:18:02 GMT.

Will be interesting to see when those dates change...

Geir

 

Cool - I've been wishing for the date stamp.

This is G o o g l e's cache of http://www.theatlantaguide.com/ as retrieved on Jul 28, 2004 01:45:17 GMT.

This is G o o g l e's cache of http://www.theorlandoguide.com/ as retrieved on Jul 28, 2004 02:03:28 GMT.

This is G o o g l e's cache of http://www.mysavannahguide.com/ as retrieved on Jul 28, 2004 01:59:48 GMT.

 

Cool. Seems like a simple thing. It's surprising they didn't implement it years ago.

 

Well, it looks like the homepage got updated, still same date on the other two:

This is G o o g l e's cache of http://www.4freephonebillanalysis.com/ as retrieved on Jul 29, 2004 01:42:22 GMT.

Geir

 

Nice, now I don't have to worry about including the date and time dynamically in my code anymore just to know when a page was cached.

 

Hi Forum-Mates,

Since Google just started including the "retrieved date" for their cache pages, the option we mentioned won't be needed any more.

Your Friends,

Sharon and Roy Montero

 

This is great!
Now we just need a good PR/BL update!

 

Sharon and Roy,

I was using the little Javascript script that you mentioned in a previous script, but now that I am getting this, I won't need it anymore.

This is G o o g l e's cache of http://www.equusbusinessfinance.co.uk/ as retrieved on 31 Jul 2004 02:17:07 GMT
This is G o o g l e's cache of http://www.stratossupersite.com/ as retrieved on 31 Jul 2004 02:57:46 GMT

Many thanks for informing us all about this change to the Google Cache info.

 

I've been monitoring caching by sticking a piece of php code that records the date as a comment in the source code. www.hypnosisaudiocds.com has been cached daily for over a month now... but this makes life a lot easier

Adam Sargant

 

We complained long and loud on this forum about the lack of a cache date. So maybe Google is listening.

But having said all this I'm surprised at the length people have gone to, prior to this, to record the exact second of the cache. What use do you make of this detailed information in your SEO work?

 

I found the php date script approach more than adequate... I was just interested in how often I was cached rather than when.

I would be interested in peoples opinions about how this pertains to SEO (frequency of caching, that is). What does it mean that one is cached daily, if anything?

For what it's worth, I use a small piece of PHP to insert a random testimonial on my site each time someone visits, so that a spider will see a slightly different page each time it visits. (This was a design choice btw, not an SEO one)

Adam Sargant

 

Are the times 5 hours ahead of Eastern Standard Time?

 

Yes I think 5 hours is correct, but what possible importance could that be?

 

Are you asking why is it important to know the precise time of a cache update?

 

Yes, this is good stuff ... and I can confirm it is accurate almost to the second - for instance, below are the Googlebot visit to the www.komar.org main page - all times are MDT which is GMT-6 ... I've commented before about the regularity of the Googlebot visits and you can clearly see it below, with one additional outlyer.

Semi-interesting/relevent is that the SERP's page for Komarnitsky shows August 3rd, 2004 ... but when you click on the cached link, it say "Aug 4, 2004 01:09:59 GMT" ... so my guess is they use Pacific time for the former (or is this somehow pulled from your personal cookie - someone in Europe could check/confirm).

But compare that time to the Googlebot visits below - pretty close, but not quite to the second (I use ntp to sync my server time, so it is right on) ... but I'll give 'em six seconds since there is a slight delay between when the request is made (and logged) on my web server and when they are done retreiving the page. BTW, note that they actually do NOT show yet the visit from last night - this is pretty interesting IMHO in that if I had made any changes, the cached copy doesn't show it and maybe they would have no affect on the SERP's as Google is "digesting" the data.

alek



64.68.82.185 - - [01/Aug/2004:19:07:08 -0600] "GET / HTTP/1.0" 200 7252 "-" "Googlebot/2.1 (+http://www.google.com/bot.html)"
64.68.82.27 - - [02/Aug/2004:00:11:22 -0600] "GET / HTTP/1.0" 200 7252 "-" "Googlebot/2.1 (+http://www.google.com/bot.html)"
64.68.82.169 - - [02/Aug/2004:19:08:57 -0600] "GET / HTTP/1.0" 200 7252 "-" "Googlebot/2.1 (+http://www.google.com/bot.html)"
64.68.82.168 - - [03/Aug/2004:19:09:53 -0600] "GET / HTTP/1.0" 200 7252 "-" "Googlebot/2.1 (+http://www.google.com/bot.html)"
64.68.82.47 - - [04/Aug/2004:19:07:24 -0600] "GET / HTTP/1.0" 200 7252 "-" "Googlebot/2.1 (+http://www.google.com/bot.html)"

 

Will someone please explain to me "so what".

Alek, I have known from the early McDar days that you apparently place great importance in this exact time and date, and whether or not Google is using California time. Can you explain the importance of this exact information and it value in SEO?

You spend a lot of time and effort to track and establish the exact time and frequency of these cachings. Can you tell me to what end?

I see this, like a PR update, as an intellectual curiosity. We would all like to know when and whether Google has seen our latest page yet, and we would all like to know what PR our pages have garnered, but besides the intellectual curiosity, what practical value does it serve? And how does one justify the time spent in tracking and obsessing over this information?