There are archives for TV shows, newspapers, radio shows, and other media. Did you know there was one for the Internet?
The Internet archive is called Wayback Machine. It was launched in 2001. You can find Web pages from early as autumn 1996 and a recent as literally yesterday. Recently, Wayback Machine just celebrated it’s 400 billionth archived webpage. But it’s done more than just give us great memories. Back in October 2013, during the government shutdown, it provided access to government sites that were shut down. Someone could just go to a gov’t site archive from literally the day before and get the info they needed.
Other than that, Wayback Machine is just fun to look at. When you look at Web pages from the late 1990s and early 2000s, even Yahoo and Google, you can’t help but marvel at how far the Web has come. I’ve seen sites from the dot com era. I’ve seen sites that I forgot even existed. I’ve read through some of the biggest news stories of the last 18 years. I’ve relived some of the greatest sports moments and celebrity scandals of that time. I’m so thankful for Wayback Machine because it’s important to keep this history alive not only for us, but all the geeks coming after us. What memories are waiting for you?
Happy Mothers Day to all Moms out there!!