Content drift

Content drift occurs when a URL continues to resolve but the meaning of the page changes—through silent edits, title reuse, or wholesale replacement—so that a citation no longer supports the claim it once did. Together with Link rot, it is often discussed under Reference rot.

Why it matters

Footnotes that point only to a live URL can become misleading years later even if the link is "green." Scholars and encyclopedias therefore record access dates and archive URLs, treating a dated Wayback Machine capture as closer to a Primary source for what was claimed at the time.

See also

• Reference rot
• Link rot
• Web archiving

Sources

• Klein, Nelson, and related research on reference rot in scholarly communication (general citation).
• Library guidance on citing dynamic web resources.