What do you do when you really want to access a webpage only to find that it is either offline or overloaded from too much traffic? You can get access to the most recent cached version using the Resurrect Pages extension for Firefox.

The Problem

If you have ever encountered a website that has become overloaded and unavailable due to sudden popularity (i.e. Slashdot, Digg, etc.) then this is the result. No satisfaction to be had here…

Resurrect Pages in Action

Once you have installed the extension you can add the Toolbar Button if desired…it will give you the easiest access to Resurrect Pages.

Or you can wait for a problem to occur when trying to access a particular website and have it appear as shown here. As you can see there is a very nice selection of cache services to choose from, therefore increasing your odds of accessing a copy of that webpage.

If you would prefer to have the access attempt open in a new tab or window then you should definitely use the Toolbar Button. Clicking on the Toolbar Button will give you access to the popup window shown here…otherwise the access attempt will happen in the current tab.

Here is the result for the website that we wanted to view using the Google Listing.

Followed by the Google (text only) Listing. The results with the different services will depend on how recently the webpage was published/set up.

View Older Versions of Currently Accessible Websites

Just for fun we decided to try the extension out on the How-To Geek website to view an older version of the homepage. Using the Toolbar Button and clicking on The Internet Archive brought up the following page…we decided to try the Nov. 28, 2006 listing.

As you can see things have really changed between 2006 and now…Resurrect Pages can be very useful for anyone who is interested in how websites across the web have grown and changed over the years.

Conclusion

If you encounter a webpage that is offline or overloaded by sudden popularity then the Resurrect Pages extension can help you get access to the information that you need using a cached version.

Links

Download the Resurrect Pages extension (Mozilla Add-ons)