Don't drink and blog and cache

Google’s cached copy of a Web site is a helpful tool for reporters. For instance, when the Hewlett-Packard Co. user group Interex shut down its Web site last summer, Google's cache of it helped the reporting. But for bloggers, I think caching is a bad idea.

Bloggers are publishers and just like any publisher subject to libel, privacy, and copyright lawsuits, according to Sandra Baron, executive director of the Media Law Resource Center in New York.

And bloggers are being sued for what they publish. Here’s list of lawsuits against bloggers compiled by the Media Law Center in New York. It’s not long, but that may change. “One might be surprised there aren’t more of them (lawsuits) considering the number of blogs out there,” said Baron. “I think you can anticipate that there will be more privacy, libel and at some point intellectual property litigation.”

It's not uncommon for a blogger to post something, perhaps a late night vent, think better of it the next day and either change it or remove it. But if search engines have a cache of it, the unaltered post may survive as long as 30 days before it’s crawled again by a search engine and updated, a Google spokesman said.

Quickly killing a problematic post doesn’t necessarily protect a blogger, either. Kurt Opsahl, at the Electronic Frontier Foundation in San Francisco, wrote in an email: “If a statement is defamatory, it only need be seen by one person – thus preventing caching will not eliminate the potential for liability.”

If a blogger deletes or changes a post but a search engine has indexed it, the user will hit a dead link. A cached original survives until the page is updated. Preventing search engine caching, as a practical matter, is probably a good idea, according to both attorneys. The EFF publishes a legal guide for bloggers.

There is template code that will prevent search engines from caching your page. Google provides code and details. To find it search for: google no archive or go here..

Another good way to stay out of trouble is hit “save as draft” and sleep on it.