Find Missing Articles
and Non-functioning Links
Instructions For Finding Missing Articles Where You Have a Quote or Excerpt: There is an easy way to find a free copy of most news articles or other important webpages which have disappeared when you have some text or a quote from the article or webpage. Copy and paste seven to ten words quoted from the article or webpage into your favorite search engine. Put quotation marks at the beginning and end of this phrase or sentence, and then press search. The results will very likely show that the article has been posted on several other websites.
Instructions for Non-functioning Links: For any link that does not function, you may be able to use the Internet archive to find the original article. To do this, first right click on the non-functioning link and select "copy shortcut" or its equivalent. Now, go to http://www.archive.org. If there is anything in the "Wayback Machine" box, delete it. Paste what you've copied into the box and click the "Take Me Back" button. Finally, click on any date for the original article as it was posted on the date listed.
The above method will show you exactly how the webpage looked one the date it was copied into the archive. Please note, however, that any website can request not to be listed on the Internet archive. Unfortunately, many major media websites have done this. If this is the case, there is another method to find the article on another website using a quote from the original article.
Find Missing Articles or Non-functioning Links