What this section contains
This archived page from the Citation Watch collection represents an early approach to monitoring how content was cited and referenced across the web, preserved from the pre-social-media era.
About citation monitoring
The "citwatch" directory suggests:
- Link tracking: Monitoring where content was cited or referenced
- Attribution monitoring: Tracking proper credit for published work
- Academic citation: Recording scholarly references to web content
- Copyright awareness: Early attempts at monitoring content reuse
Historical context
Before modern analytics and social monitoring:
- Manual tracking: Searching for citations via early search engines
- Referrer logs: Analyzing server logs for incoming links
- Link databases: Manually maintaining lists of citations
- Web rings and directories: Organized link sharing communities
The all.htm pattern
A comprehensive index file typically contained:
- Complete citation list: All tracked references in one document
- Chronological or categorical: Organized by date or topic
- External link collection: Outbound references to citing sources
- Status tracking: Noting active vs. broken citation links
Pre-analytics era techniques
Early citation monitoring methods included:
- AltaVista/Google searches: Manual queries for quoted content
- Backlink checking: Using early SEO tools to find inbound links
- Email alerts: Manual notification systems before Google Alerts
- Forum monitoring: Watching discussion boards for mentions
Modern alternatives
Contemporary citation monitoring uses:
- Google Alerts: Automated notifications for content mentions
- Google Search Console: Backlink data from Google
- Analytics platforms: Real-time referrer tracking
- Social listening: Monitoring social media mentions
For implementing modern monitoring:
- Copyright monitoring basics — Current techniques
- Operations hub — Monitoring and analytics
- Legal hub — Copyright and attribution policies
Related topics
- Hosting archives reliably — Preserving historical data
- Citations policy — How to cite wplus.net content
- Privacy policy — Data handling for archived content
Note on archived content
This page represents historical citation tracking methods. For current monitoring approaches, please refer to modern analytics tools and copyright monitoring guidelines.