Would you like to know the launch date of your favorite or regularly visited website? Unless the website owner discloses the exact launch date, there is no certain way to find out. However, there are tools to check the launch date of any website and give you a rough estimate, which may or may not be accurate.
We’ll discuss different methods that can help you check the launch date of a website and the limitations of each method.
1. Use the Wayback Machine
The Wayback Machine is a service to check archived versions of web pages and websites. It lets you see exactly how the website looked months or years ago. Even if the website is now inactive, you can access the old record anytime.
The website aggregates web captures from hundreds of web crawls that contribute daily to the archive. While these crawls efficiently capture a snapshot of a webpage on a particular date, they take a while to crawl new websites.
Therefore, a website may have been launched before the first snapshot recorded in Wayback Machine. To determine the approximate launch date of a website through Wayback Machine, follow the below steps:
Makeuseof was launched on July 3rd, 2006, but the first record on the Wayback Machine dates from July 6th, 2006. Although it’s only a minor delay of three days, it could be big or small for other websites.
The Wayback Machine isn’t the onlytool you’re able to use to check an old version of a website; you can also use other services.
2. Use WHOIS Domain Lookup
The WHOIS database contains information about the person or company that registered the domain. This record is maintained by domain registrars and organizations such as ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers) and IANA (Internet Assigned Numbers Authority).
We can use the database to check when a domain was registered, when it was last updated, and when it will expire. Besides that, we can check information about the domain name registrar, name servers, and so forth. Based on the registration data, we can determine when the website was launched.
However, this data can only give us an idea of when a domain was registered. If the domain owner only launches the website days or weeks after registration, the actual launch date may differ.
To check the registration date of the website, follow the below steps:
In the case of MUO, the registration date matches the actual launch date, which is July 3rd, 2006. It means the website was launched the same day it was registered. It may not be accurate in every instance, however.
3. Check the Oldest Indexed Page
When a user publishes a webpage on a website, Google and other search engines, where the user chooses to get indexed,crawl that page using web crawlers. Then, if the page deserves to be indexed, search engines will index it.
During indexing, the webpage is stored in the search engine’s database, and the search engine organizes its content to enable users to search for it. Therefore, checking the oldest indexed page of a website can give us an idea of its launch date.
However, this method also has some limitations. A website owner may not intend to have the website indexed even days after launch; the search engine crawlers may crawl the website a day or week after launch, or the owner may remove the old indexed pages from the search engine’s database.
To find the oldest indexed pages of a website on Google, follow the below steps:
The oldest page on MUO we found on Google was indexed in November 2006, five months after the website was launched.
4. Explore the Website
Website owners and companies usually mention the copyright period at the bottom of the website’s About Us page or homepage. We can use this information to predict the launch date of a website, but it also has many drawbacks.
The website owner may choose not to display this information on the website. The website may have been sold to a new company, and the copyright date represents the ownership date of the new company rather than the first company that launched it.
Also, even if the copyright date is given and is accurate, it only indicates the year of launch, not the exact day or month.
5. Check the Creation Date of Social Media Accounts
The creation date of the social media accounts can also help estimate the launch date of a particular website. Find out which social media accounts the website has—most websites list them on their homepage.
If the website has a presence on Facebook, check the creation date of the Facebook page. If the website owns a Twitter handle, check its creation date and do the same for other social media accounts.
However, the data can only be accurate if the social media accounts were created on the same day the website launched. Because of that, like other methods, you’re able to only estimate the date of creation with this method, which can be inaccurate.
Easily Estimate the Age of a Website
Though there’s no solid way to determine when a website launched, several ways exist to make a close guess. Hopefully, you now have a better understanding of all the methods you may use to estimate the creation date of a website. Use them to determine how old your favorite website is.
