Have you ever bookmarked a page from a website only to find months or years later that it is no longer available?

It has simply been removed from cyber world for one reason or another!

Screen shot of a website I use to own.

What would you say if I were to tell you that you could most likely visit it again; go into the past so to speak?

Well, a handy site to bookmark, hoping it doesn’t disappear :), is archive.org. On this site is a handy tool called ‘The Way Back Machine.’

Sounds sorta like a time machine right?

How Does It Work?
I will use my old website which is no longer active or online as an example.

When you arrive at Archive.org, you will see this. The image is shown with my old url.

Click Browse History. When you see this next image, choose how far you want to go back. I’ll choose 2008.

Once you click the year, a calendar for the year will show up. If the site was crawled, it will be highlighted with a blue circle.

Click on any blue circle and wa-la, you see the page from way back! Or not so back depending on the date you choose. 😉

Now mind you, printables and sometimes images will not be functionable, but if it is content you are after, that will be there.

The images on the archive of Albright News aren’t showing and my downloads are not funtionable.

This page is no longer what it was a few years back when I used it for reference. But, Archive.org has it captured, so I can still utilize it.

Also, this might not work for all sites, especially those using java script, such as game sites, but for information purposes, it is great.

Enjoy your trip into cyber world time!

Clock picture from PublicDomainPictures.net