# File ot Found?!?!?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/file-ot-found/90920>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [November 1, 2001, 3:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/file-ot-found/90920 "2001-11-01T15:32:44Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 6\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Enola\_Straight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/dec6dc/32.png) [@Enola\_Straight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Enola_Straight)\
**Post date:** [November 1, 2001, 3:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/file-ot-found/90920/1 "2001-11-01T15:32:44Z")

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Sometimes when I type a keyword into a search engine, and get the resulting list of websites, I am frustrated when I try to click on a site, only to find that site can’t be found.

If the engine can’t find the site, how does it find the web adress in the first place?

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**Author:** ![friedo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/8edcca/32.png) [@friedo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/friedo)\
**Post date:** [November 1, 2001, 3:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/file-ot-found/90920/2 "2001-11-01T15:49:58Z")

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The “engine” is not attempting to find the site, your web browser is. Presumably, the last time your search engine updated its index, that page existed, but it doesn’t exist anymore, so when your browser tries to fetch it, you get an error.

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**Author:** ![bibliophage](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bibliophage/32/7615_2.png) [@bibliophage](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bibliophage)\
**Post date:** [November 1, 2001, 4:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/file-ot-found/90920/3 "2001-11-01T16:18:32Z")

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If you’re using [http://www.Google.com](http://www.Google.com) for searching and the page doesn’t exist any more, you can still see google’s cached copy of the page. For details, see [http://www.google.com/help/features.html#cached](http://www.google.com/help/features.html#cached)

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**Author:** ![Reeder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c6cbf5/32.png) [@Reeder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Reeder)\
**Post date:** [November 1, 2001, 4:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/file-ot-found/90920/4 "2001-11-01T16:56:54Z")

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Most search engines don’t “search” the web. They have the pages listed in their databases. So if the link they have listed is dead, you get the 404.

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**Author:** ![Turbo\_Dog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ce73a5/32.png) [@Turbo\_Dog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Turbo_Dog)\
**Post date:** [November 1, 2001, 5:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/file-ot-found/90920/5 "2001-11-01T17:36:07Z")

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I don’t know.

I just came in here cuz I saw the title of the OP and thought it might be a new Cajun recipe 🙂

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**Author:** ![sailor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a587f6/32.png) [@sailor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sailor)\
**Post date:** [November 1, 2001, 11:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/file-ot-found/90920/6 "2001-11-01T23:21:17Z")

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That would be Fillet o’Flounder 🙂