I can’t tell you when I first discovered archive.org. I just know that I have known of its existence and kept it in the back of my mind for reference years for at least three years now! archive.org is just what it sounds like – the internet archive. It has several tools and resources, but my personal favorite feature of archive.org is the WayBack Machine.
The WayBack Machine is a handy little tool where you can input a web address – any web address! If archive.org has viewed that particular web address in the past, it will have an archived copy of it available for viewing. The dates of saved copies of websites can go as far back as three or four years, more if you’re lucky! What purpose does the WayBack Machine serve? Well, you can look up your old websites and layouts for a good laugh. Or if you have a server malfunction, check for archived copies of your website to grab a certain blog entry. Of course, there are people who use the WayBack Machine in order to gather information to use as ammunition against others, so remember what someone so wisely said: be careful of what you say/do, because it CAN come back to haunt you!
On a related note, if you’d prefer that the WayBack Machine not save copies of your website periodically, see their handy robots.txt WayBack Machine exclusion guide. A quick code insert, and WayBack Machine will respect your desire to not have your website archived on their server!
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