W E B . I N T E R N E T A R C H I V E . O R G
There are some sites that offer too much to go through or explain about in one post. In my opinion, Internet Archive is a classic example of that. Instead of trying to explain everything on offer I’m going to focus on just one sub-section and that is the Internet Archive: Wayback Machine.
In 1996 the creators of Internet Archive began archiving content on the web, site by site, page by page so many sites would be preserved forever, even if they had long since gone or altered beyond recognition. Up to now it has amassed a staggering 85 billion pages and that number just continues to rise.
To see a website in its former glory couldn’t be easier. Simply type in a URL in the box provided, and click “Take Me Back”. If the website of your choice was one of the billions that was indexed it will show up in a list of dates that you can click to see the site as it was then. There is no better example of this than using Internet Archive’s site itself, if you’d like to take a glimpse at history in the making.
Further down the page there is also a list of growing Web Collections that contain websites based on an important topic of a specific time up to this point today. This is useful in and of itself if you are interested in a particular subject as all the information is kept together for your reading pleasure.
The positives far outweigh the negatives, although there are a few things I think I should mention. It obviously takes a long time to index all the information so there is a delay of around 6 months after the data has been collected. Another thing is sometimes formatting or pictures do not display on older site updates, however I feel this is relatively minor considering the sheer magnitude that is there. Lastly, it’s worth noting that not all websites are available through the Wayback Machine but the reasons are explained on their FAQ.
In conclusion, it’s good to reminisce and see how times and styles have changed over the years. You’ll find no better way to do it than with Internet Archive: Wayback Machine as far as I’m concerned.
