The wayback machines: the internet's rear view mirror

Many think of the innertubes as a domain of ever-changing, what's-next content. 

But yesterday is today with two backward-looking applications:

The internet wayback machine is an archive of web pages that goes back (for some sites) as far as 1996. It's a fascinating anthropological look in the rear view mirror at the state of the web just a decade ago. For some sites, it surely shows how far things have come (Amazon.com: 2000 and 2008). 

Though the display isn't always complete (broken links and missing images being the biggest holes), it can be a fascinating look at what was important--or at least prominent--on various sites. 

Here's a look at what R+K's site looked like in:

April 2002;

January 2006

It can be a bit like revisiting those high school year book photos...embarrassing, and, if you are prone to it, nostalgic.

 

Here's one of our client sites, CottonExperts.com...then (2000) and now

Another tool, available (for one month only!), is Google's index 2001. In celebration of their 10th anniversary, Google released the search index as it existed in 2001. Try a few searches on terms that, today, seem like decades ago.