Offline Browsing

I know offline browsing is not something new, it's actually quite ancient, as ancient as the browser itself, because it is basically just using the temporarily downloaded cache in your machine to display the web content that you previously viewed.

Several friends told me that they simply cannot see my weblog site in China, no matter how many times they've refreshed the page or how many browser alternatives they've tried to use…So, it is a further confirmation of the inaccessibility of Blogger.com in China. This really sucks…

Although I can tell them to use particular proxies which I cannot name one, or on my side, I can save every page of the site in my computer and wrap them up by compression, and send it right away to them, but in terms of the latter, what is missing is the structure of this site that is enough clear online. When they open every page in the package, though with every entry's publishing date on it, they may still feel without clickable hyper links and many missing pictures and Flashes it's just as messy as hell. This is but a simple weblog site, what if it is a site with an extra tanglesome infrastructure?

Well, I find the freeware "WinHTTrack Website Copier", a pretty old one, but simple and fast. I didn't use it before because with high speed internet jacks or Wifi connection everywhere nowadays I didn't see the necessity. But after I used it, I found it has done an excellent job, especially for its ability to restructure the site and group the downloaded files in respective folders created locally, and its ability to intellectually update (detecting the new website structure, deleting the content that no longer exists online, adding content newly uploaded, etc.) the mirrored local website when you simply click "update". Sending the package that is created by the software is much easier and more efficient, and most importantly, your friends are now able to view your site just as if they were visiting from the real domain.