Wayback Machine

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The Wayback Machine is a digital archive of the World Wide Web[1], initiated in 1996 and officially launched in 2001 by the founders of Internet[2] Archive. Its main objective is to store and present versions of web pages across different points in time. As of January 2024, it has archived more than 860 billion web pages. The Wayback Machine uses software that crawls the web to collect publicly accessible information. The data is stored on PetaBox rack systems, with storage capacity continually expanding over the years. Users can make archival requests and view a website[3]’s evolution over time. The Wayback Machine also has key features like the Wayforward Machine and the ‘Save a Page’ feature. Despite its usefulness in scholarly, journalistic and research fields, it has faced various legal and ethical challenges.

Terms definitions
1. World Wide Web ( World Wide Web ) The World Wide Web, often referred to as the Web, is a widespread information system platform that billions of people interact with daily. Invented by Tim Berners-Lee in 1989 at the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN), the Web was designed to support connections between multiple databases on different computers. Its function is to facilitate content sharing over the Internet in a user-friendly manner. This is achieved through web servers that make documents and media content available. Users can locate and access these resources through Uniform Resource Locators (URLs). The Web supports various content types and allows for easy navigation across websites via hyperlinks. Its use extends to various sectors including education, entertainment, commerce, and government, with information provided by companies, organizations, government agencies, and individual users.
2. Internet ( Internet ) The Internet is a global system of interconnected computer networks that use standardized communication protocols, primarily the TCP/IP, to link devices worldwide. Originating from the term 'internetted' used in 1849, the term 'Internet' was later used by the US War Department in 1945. Its development began with computer scientists creating time-sharing systems in the 1960s and further progressed with the establishment of ARPANET in 1969. The Internet is self-governed, without a central authority, and its principal name spaces are administered by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN). It has significantly transformed traditional communication media and has grown exponentially over the years, with internet users increasing 20% to 50% annually. In 2019, over half of the world population used the Internet. The Internet protocol suite, which includes TCP/IP and four conceptual layers, guides internet packets to their destinations. Essential services like email and Internet telephony operate on the Internet. The World Wide Web, a global collection of interconnected documents, is a key component of the Internet.
Wayback Machine (Wikipedia)

The Wayback Machine is a digital archive of the World Wide Web founded by the Internet Archive, an American nonprofit organization based in San Francisco, California. Created in 1996 and launched to the public in 2001, it allows the user to go "back in time" to see how websites looked in the past. Its founders, Brewster Kahle and Bruce Gilliat, developed the Wayback Machine to provide "universal access to all knowledge" by preserving archived copies of defunct web pages.

Wayback Machine
Stylized text saying: "INTERNET ARCHIVE WAYBACK MACHINE". The text is in black, except for "WAYBACK", which is in red.
Type of site
Archive
Founded
  • May 10, 1996; 27 years ago (1996-05-10) (private)
  • October 24, 2001; 22 years ago (2001-10-24) (public)
Area servedWorldwide (except China, Russia, and Bahrain)
OwnerInternet Archive
URLweb.archive.org Edit this at Wikidata
CommercialNo
RegistrationOptional
Current statusActive
Written inHTML, CSS, JavaScript, Java, Python

Launched on May 10, 1996, the Wayback Machine had saved more than 38.2 billion web pages at the end of 2009. As of January 3, 2024, the Wayback Machine has archived more than 860 billion web pages and well over 99 petabytes of data.

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