Wednesday, October 08, 2008

The Wayback Machine

Did you know that myspace.com used to be a Web based storage company? Much like some of the other companies like xdrive.com, it was a site that would allow you to have an online backup of your files. I know this because I actually used it back around 2001 or so.

What's very interesting (and educational, for a Web developer) is to look back and see how the design of Web sites and pages has changed over time. The Internet archive tool on Archive.org - also called "The Wayback Machine" (a nod to the WABAC machine on the Rocky and Bullwinkle show) - has archived and continues to archive millions of Web sites. Want to see what Myspace.com looked like in 2001? Just search. It goes all the way back to 1996.

The part that is a little scary is that even if you deleted something off the Web, if they archived it, it may still be out there.

It's kind of sad to look back at my old Internet startup company's page and see how they get kind of desperate towards the end - it was apparent even on the Web site.

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1 comment:

Anonymous said...

It's even more sad (and embarrassing)to see some really hideous web designs that I hacked together years ago!