diff --git a/cmd/godoc/appinit.go b/cmd/godoc/appinit.go
index 293ad52a..cb747b30 100644
--- a/cmd/godoc/appinit.go
+++ b/cmd/godoc/appinit.go
@@ -83,6 +83,7 @@ func main() {
 		log.Fatal(err)
 	}
 	corpus.IndexDirectory = indexDirectoryDefault
+	corpus.InitVersionInfo()
 	go corpus.RunIndexer()
 
 	pres = godoc.NewPresentation(corpus)
diff --git a/cmd/godoc/regtest_test.go b/cmd/godoc/regtest_test.go
index dcfa9154..7e760170 100644
--- a/cmd/godoc/regtest_test.go
+++ b/cmd/godoc/regtest_test.go
@@ -49,6 +49,11 @@ func TestLiveServer(t *testing.T) {
 			Path:      "/pkg/os/",
 			Substring: "func Open",
 		},
+		{
+			Path:      "/pkg/net/http/",
+			Substring: `title="Added in Go 1.11"`,
+			Message:   "version information not present - failed InitVersionInfo?",
+		},
 		{
 			Path:        "/robots.txt",
 			Substring:   "Disallow: /search",