Find old web pages from the Internet Archive
How many times you’ve tried to find an old page which is not available on Internet now since it has been removed from its website? It may be due to broken link or the site having been removed. Internet Archive maintains a WayBackMachine that enables you to find the contents of an old web page with broken link or which has now been removed from the Internet. It also enables you to find older versions of a web page that may still exist on the Internet but might have been revised subsequently. Sometimes, you may get a large number of versions of the same web page or website that has been revised on several occasions. So, you can go back in time to view the older web pages on the Internet. Internet Archive maintains more than 150 billion web pages in its archive.
Internet Archive maintains web pages archived from 1996 to a few months ago. To see an old web page, enter its URL / web address, and then press Enter key. For example, as an illustration, I searched http://www.nytimes.com, and it has about 4199 archived pages of the New York Times home page since 1996 (all these are different versions of the above web page archived on different dates); see the following snapshot:
4199 different versions of home page of New York Times stored on Internet Archive since 1996
Now, you can select the old web page from the archived dates available. By doing so, you’ll be able to see the web page of that particular year and date. This is irrespective of the current status of the page that might have been revised. Likewise, you can view old any web page that is now not available on the Internet. What you need to know is its URL. So, if you’ve its web address or web link, you can view an old web page even if it has been removed from the Internet.
The objective of the Internet Archive is stated on its website as under:
“The Internet Archive is working to prevent the Internet – a new medium with major historical significance – and other “born-digital” materials from disappearing into the past. Collaborating with institutions including the Library of Congress and the Smithsonian, we are working to preserve a record for generations to come.”
So, it’s like an online library of all web pages including their historical versions preserved for the future generations.
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