Travel Back in time with the WayBack Machine

Have you ever wondered what a site used to look like years ago? Wondered what sites like Microsoft, Apple, BBC all looked like when they were first created? Well your in luck! I have come across a great way you can see this! It’s called the “Wayback Machine”! No, this isn’t something from Doctor Who and don’t worry you wont have to travel at the speed of light to go back in time either.

The WayBack Machine is located over at the Internet Archive Pages (archive.org) and allows you to enter any web address that is over 6 months old and it will have a go at showing you what It used to look like!

Below is an example and for it I have chosen the BBC.co.uk webpage!

Step 1: Enter a URL

The First thing you need to do is head to the archive webpage. Then enter a URL of your choosing! Simple eh? Next go on click that Take Me Back button. Don’t worry nothing will happen to you. You wont end up back when the Internet began! (Would be good though buying google.com, twitter etc )

Step 2: Select a date.

Ok, so Step 2 will show you a list of dates. Now depending on the age of the website this could be anything from a couple to a couple of hundred. Usually there is a different grab of the page for each time it was updated and this is indicated with a little * (asterisk). Click one and you will go back in time to see the result. If you get an error hit the back button and try another page!

Step 3: See the old days of the web! (BBC July 1998)

After selecting a date you can see what the website looked like. Best of all these aren’t images, they are fully interactive so feel free to click the links!

That’s it all done! Why not try out Microsoft, Apple, IBM, Google, Yahoo. You could even try out Alton Towers Magic, which for those who do not know or remember, I was the owner of along with my mate. Don’t pick on the design it was my first site and was far more successful than Cloud Bite

If you Find any sites worth a look at please link to them below!

Link: WayBack Machine

By: Mark