Remembering the Wayback Machine from Internet Archives

Sometimes I forget just how "new" the modern world wide web really is. Here's a fun tool that I had forgotten about. I had a good laugh looking back at some of my early work on the web. I encourage you to do the same. How? Read on...

Many podcasters are using the Internet Archives for free hosting of their mp3 files. Another service of the Internet Archives is the Wayback Machine. This service records a snapshot of the main page of many different sites over time. Unfortunately it only goes back to 1996.

What did your first district, company, or personal web site look like? What information was on it then as compared to today? How was the site updated? Who updated it then and who updates it today? Are the tools different?

I've had some fun with this lately.

As I shared the fun with my wife she reminded me that this is just one more example of why our teens using MySpace, Xanga, Facebook, and other social networking sites should be educated about online safety. It is likely that EVERYTHING you post online is archived somewhere. Google caching is yet another example.

Nevertheless, it is fun to see how the web has evolved. Visit the Wayback Machine for a good gut laugh.

KP

Tags: internet, social networking, online safety, paccio