How to recover most/all of your JournalSpace posts/images using Google Cache

Hey all --

I just read on Slashdot how JournalSpace.com has had a serious database issue, resulting in the loss of all their users posts, images, personal data, and more.

Immediately, I thought, "Google cache probably took snapshots of may users posts, and maybe even some of their images. It's worth a shot running a sample query..."

So I ran a sample Google query on someone's JournalSpace username, and I was correct. It looks like all, if not most of your posts and maybe even images have been preserved by our big brother Google. For one sample query I did on a user, I got pages and pages of results!

Unfortunately, this method only works for people who did not have their blogs/journals set to be viewable only by other JournalSpace members, or set to Friends &/or Favorites only, and for other entries that were not set to private. Also, if people configured their blogs so that the googlebot, or other bots were blocked, they may have limited success in resurrecting old entries from the cache (thanks Charm for this info). So a lot of people may have limited or no success with these methods. For that group, I extend my sympathies. I know the feeling of losing so much personal data.

Assuming you didn't do any of the things above, try running a Google search like so --

site:your_journalspace_username.journalspace.com

Then, look for the link labeled "Cached" under any particular result, and you'll get Google's cached version.



For example, if I had a JournalSpace, I'd simply type in Google --

site:andrewtheart.journalspace.com

Other ideas for Google searches:

• Get a particular post from an entryid (thanks Class Factotum)--
  

entryid site:your_username.journalspace.com

• Get posts by date (examples)
  

site:your_username.journalspace.com "m=12" "y=2008"
site:your_username.journalspace.com "y=2008"

• Get comments from cached entries (thanks Charm) --
  

"your_username.journalspace.com" displaycomments

• Get any page on JournalSpace with a reference to your name (may not work as intended/expected) --

your_user_name site:journalspace.com

There may be better ways to search Google for your cached posts. Experiment a bit and post your results here.

Some have also recommended using the Web Archive to look up old posts (thanks Frederick and Anon) -- http://www.archive.org/web/web.php. I tried using this, but it appears like the webmaster has blocked access to JournalSpace archives (at least temporarily). Maybe they couldn't handle the traffic. Give it a shot anyway.

You may want to try the Google cache trick quickly. I have a sinking suspicion Google may not like all this traffic.

You saw it here first. Good luck.

Andrew