Maintenance support for web sites: a case study

Abstract

This paper reports on results gathered during a case study using a Web maintenance tool called Perlbot. The main objective of the study is to observe the history of modifications made on various Web documents. Based on selected metrics, we collect data with respect to how such sites are maintained and evolve. The data gathered support our hypothesis that there is a worldwide tendency to accumulate large numbers of stale documents over long periods of time. Moreover, our quantitative results reveal inconsistent Web maintenance activities spanning over various international sites.