Content on the internet has an expiration date

It’s been an unfortunate truism that nothing is permanent on the internet. This is a shame for anyone who values information and entertainment on the web.
The examples of disappearing content come regularly. Often websites disappear with nary a peep. Other times content like news articles simply becomes unavailable.
I occasionally try to eliminate the dead weblinks from Tech-media-tainment but it’s a Sisyphean task. It makes me not want to use weblinks on my blog at all.
Since I started Tech-media-tainment in late 2008, I’ve spotlighted more than 400 websites that I’ve found worthwhile. Quite a few of those don’t exist anymore. Some now lead to error pages. Others have been taken over by spam and marketing sites. Others are no longer updated, but at least the data is still there, so that’s good.
My list of favorite websites provides a good testing ground for the life of content on the internet.
Of the first 100 websites I highlighted between November 2008 and October 2011, 36% are no longer reachable.
Of the next 100 websites, 34% are gone. Those websites were spotlighted between October 2011 and February 2014.
Of the subsequent 100 websites, 33% are kaput. Those were publicized between February 2014 and November 2017.
Of the websites I’ve called out since then, 11 have gone bye-bye.
All told, that’s 114 websites, social media accounts and other interesting internet sites that web surfers can no longer visit.

Photo: Expiration date on cream cheese by Flickr user Chris Waits via the Creative Commons.