Sep 30, 2024

Do you Know How to Date Online Content?

ActResearch

How do you know the date that your content was created or published? What if it isn’t listed on the site? Learn to be a”date detective” with these suggestions and ideas.

Why

When I find a website that is promising, meaning it might be a good source for my diligence project, I look for a date. Usually the date the content was published or created. I use that as a first test asking myself, is this site worth a review or should I just move on to the next search result?

I know my general timeframe for content because I have thought about it in advance it is an easy way to filter search results. For example, if I need current news an article from five years ago is not useful alternatively, if I want an article from five years ago and there is no material older than two years ago, the site doesn’t meet my criteria.

Dating the content is a priority because dates help you move your diligence forward. I explored this topic in The Role of Dates In Successful Diligence, briefly, dates are useful:

  • as a filter
  • to test the accuracy of the content information
  • to put context around the content information
  • to help you judge the credibility, professionalism and accuracy of the information and the creators and publishers
  • for organization (such as a timeline)
  • for formal citation
  • for creating directions to retrieve the content in the future
  • to help identify deception

The Past

It used to be easy to find dates associated with content. Most content was professionally produced and there were rules. Most of us learned those rules in school or through experience. I was taught that newspapers had bylines listing the date of publication, books had copyright and edition notices, magazines had public schedules for publication and any worthwhile factual report included proper citations with dates.

There were rules, we understood the rules and the rules made dating content easy.

Now

It has changed, the web and the social media platforms as a whole do not have formal:

  • gatekeepers to publication – anyone can publish almost anything without any editorial review
  • fact checkers to insure accuracy
  • standard formats for publication
  • rules around content types

In addition, there have been some perceived advantages to making content “evergreen” meaning that it is always current. This is sometimes accomplished in a clumsy manner – by omitting dates – so that users will assume the content is “fresh”.

With these changes, how do you associate content with a date? I have gathered some suggestions below. But to start, you need to understand two things:

  1. What dates or timeframes are relevant to your diligence project. If you re looking for current material, historical material may be irrelevant, if you need historical material looking at sites that only contain current material is also irrelevant. It starts with your plan, see: The Secret To Great Diligence – Start with a Plan and 3 Easy Ideas To Avoid “Bad” Content and Save Time and
  2. Which date do you want? A website, a piece of content such as an article or report may have multiple dates including the date:
    • created
    • released
    • published
    • of the edition or copyright

Your plan should guide you for choosing relevant timeframes. My recommendation for which date to use to match the timeframe is to start with the date most closely associated with the actual creation of the content. If needed look for other dates understanding that they are going to be less accurate for dating the specific content.

Suggestions for Dating Content

The Obvious

These are ideas for finding dates of creation of creation or publication as well as more “distant” dates.

  • Publication date or last updated date – may be on the title page of the content, either at the top or the bottom of the page. If you look at the Diligence File website, you see that the date of the publication of the post is on the top of the post.
  • URL – look at the URL for the page. The URL is the string of information used to reach the content – this is an example of an URL that includes the date of publication, https://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/music/2024/09/28/lady-gaga-harlequin-joker/
  • Other Content – you may be looking at a post or article, but what about the rest of the content on the site? Are there other articles, reports or documents and are they dated? Can you tell if anything is current or within a timeframe?
  • Copyright – this is less precise but it will give you an indication of how current the site is and by extension the content on the site. For example, if a site has a copyright in 2024 and it is 2024, you can consider that at least some of the content is current. If a site has a copyright of 2010 and it is 2024, either the site owner hasn’t updated the copyright notice in 14 years (unlikely) or more likely, the content is from 2010 and earlier.

The Clues

These suggestions don’t provide actual dates, but they provide hints or a range for when the the content may have been created or published. You may use those hints for estimating date of creation or concluding that the content is outdated.

  • Platform – The World Wide Web was launched to the public in 1991 and the first browser in 1993, but as we know, the web is a platform that allows for the publication and posting of materials that predate its inception. However, other platforms are more recent and material that is actually created on those platforms is by definition bounded by the creation/launch dates of the platform. For example, TikTok was launched in 2018, Instagram in 2010 and LinkedIn in 2003.
  • Context – Look at the content for context. Some things to look for include, references to events, technologies, and cultural icons such as people in the news or popular products. These references may allow you to date the content.
  • Form/style – What does the form or style of the site or the content tell you? Does it seem up to date or old fashioned? Is the layout current or does it invoke an earlier time in the web. Does the style of writing tell you anything?
  • Maintenance – Is the site up to date? Are there broken links or parts of the site that don’t work? A site that is not kept up to date is a red flag that the content on the site are not current.
  • Comments – If the site allows for comments, how old are the comments? Does the context of the comments allow you to date the content or at least provide clues as to when they were written?

Some Tools

These are ways to use technology to help you identify dates associated with a website, page or content. These three ideas are referenced in multiple sites. These sites contain instructions. I am referencing one of them here, just be sure to understand the meaning of the dates that you find.

  • Source Code – each part of a website has an underlying source code that can be made visible to a user. You look at the source code through a series of commands on your browser. These commands vary a bit depending on the type of browser you use. Once you open the source code the next step is to search within the code to find dates associated with the specific material that is on the site.
  • Google Search – There are advanced search techniques that allow you to refine Google searches or make them more specific. Using certain operators and following a series of steps you may be able to find the dates associated with a site or a page.
  • Wayback Machine – the Wayback Machine is an archive. It stores a snapshot of what a site looked like at a particular moment in time. You can then access and browse the stored information. The number of stored versions will vary. The idea is to review the stored sites to see if you can find dates or get an idea of when the material first appeared on the site. Not all sites have been stored in the Wayback Machine.

To try these methods, see the step by step instructions in the article that I linked to above. You can also find these instructions on other websites, just do a search.

Some Additional Thoughts

> These ideas are directed toward dating websites and mostly apply to written content. You can use these concepts to search for similar ideas and tools that apply to different forms of content and different platforms.

> With advancements such as AI, the tools of deception are becoming easier to use and better at fooling you so it is important to be very vigilant and diligent about dating content used for diligence.

> Your response to uncertainty around any site or content can be to: (i) not use the information or (ii) extract the material that is useful and verify it using a more trusted source.

> You need to assess if it actually worth your time to try to date undated material. It might be best to find a different source.

> Reminder if you are still unsure about using any conten, verify it with additional sources and always, evaluate, assess and analyze information. That is part of the diligence process, see: It’s Content Judgement Time – Are you up to the task?

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