Website Caching

25 November 2009

Website Caching

By Izaz Ali

We previously looked at caching and the legal implications of caching for website owners- namely web pages detailing out of date content. Therefore if caching is used it must be done regularly so that the content is fresh and up to date. See:

<http://www.lawdit.co.uk/reading_room/room/view_article.asp?name=../articles/Caching.txt>

In this brief article I set out tips for both users and ISPs who use caching.

To ensure that you receive an up to date copy of the webpage you can simply refresh the webpage (i.e. reload it again).

This is particularly important when looking at news websites or websites relating to the prices of stocks/ shares etc. Doing this will slow down your speed of browsing but it will ensure you have up to date content displayed at all times.

As for ISPS- it is still widespread practice to use caching and in doing so ISPs run the risk of providing information that may be a little out of date. The trade off is the web pages will load up quickly and therefore enhance the user experience and lessen the load on the ISP to continually fetch fresh data.

Izaz Ali (Izaz.Ali@lawdit.co.uk) Izaz is a commercial lawyer who specialises in information technology law and intellectual property law with an emphasis on IT, escrow, online and off-line contracts, and the buying and selling of online businesses.