#How to show hidden text on web page full
#How to show hidden text on web page code

If you are on a Craigslist ad and want to know when the post might expire, go to the source code and search unavailable and you will see the date and time the post will be ‘unavailable’.

Now, it may be that the person inadvertently had this information locked down through their privacy settings, not knowing that it would be ‘hidden’ in the post. But, by quickly searching the source code for the term ‘Please call’, I was immediately presented with the phone number because this isn’t restricted in the code. So, while the post doesn’t show the info, the source code does. While these examples might be helpful to some degree, here is why the source code is extremely important to know about. While doing some research on Facebook Market place, I came across a post and as I got to the end, the phone number had been replaced with. Now just down from this information in the page source for an Instagram post, is also a line that reads: 'instapp:owner_user_id' content='5088801941'. This number at the end after the = sign is the Instagram ID number for that profile. I always suggest that you capture and save this information as part of your research, since this is required information if you ever have to subpoena information from the provider. Want to just search for the Instagram ID then search user_id and it will get you there. at 5:20pm UTC'. You now have the time of the post, but this is in Coordinated Universal Time (for us traditionalists the Greenwich Mean Time), which means it will be 4 hours later than Eastern Standard time, so just make sure you adjust for this in your own time zone.

#How to show hidden text on web page full

For instance, if you are on an Instagram post, you will now see that the date the post was created. This used to be in days and weeks, but now either the month & day is listed, or for older posts, the full date. But what about the time it was posted, because sometimes that's really important (especially if it is near the time of loss). If you go to the page source, and then search the term og:title or the term post or even the month listed for the original post, you will see a line that includes: 'og:title' content='Instagram post by username This is one way to use the source code, but there are many others. Instagram has been pushing updates every month lately, changing their format each time. The next trick you need to learn, is using the CTRL+F shortcut, or the 'find' option on your browser. This brings up a keyword search box at the top of your webpage and lets you quickly search for the words you enter. I have traditionally used this to find the Facebook ID number for various profiles so I don't have to jump to another website. Once I am in the profile I want, I go to the page source, hit CTRL+F, and then search the term profileid= and these words are suddenly highlighted on the page and the number that follows is the ID number for that profile. To double check, take the number and add it at the end of and it should go right back to that profile. Open your web browser, whether that's Google Chrome or Internet Explorer, and go to any web page you want.a Facebook Marketplace ad, your favorite local restaurant’s website, or an Instagram post. Once on that page, you can either use the keyboard shortcut CTRL+U, or you can right click (not on a picture) anywhere on the webpage which should bring up an option to 'View Page Source' in Chrome or 'View Source' in Explorer. Doing this will open a new page with the source code listed. Don't panic, and don't worry that you don't know what it all means.neither do I! There is an immense amount of information about that web page found in the source code, which means there are little hidden gems you and I can find if we have the courage to try.

When you are viewing the 'page source' you are just looking at the code used to create the visual website that you normally see. The information there explains things like what color the border above the logo should be, to what size a picture is displayed, to what information should be pushed to search engines. Have you ever right clicked your mouse on a web page and accidentally clicked on 'page source' only to find that you have been transported to a world of incomprehensible words and symbols? Did you quickly find your way off that page, worried that you might have broken the Internet? Going to the 'page source' of a website isn't a thing you should be worried about, in fact, it is something that you should be getting more and more familiar with.