Wouldn’t it be fantastic to go back to the past and view websites and their content as they once appeared…as if there was some sort of “Wayback Machine”? I’ve been using the Internet Archive Wayback Machine for several years now when I need to view content on websites that I had previously worked on. This tool allows users to browse through 85 billion web pages archived from 1996 to a few months ago. Just type in your search and then browse through the archived website as you would have back then.

Shocked that such a tool exists? Most people I tell about it are and can’t wait to begin searching through archived web material. And why not? It’s fun to go back and view how website design and technology has changed over the years.

It’s also fun to do the following:

• Check out a bad haircut of someone you used to work with who had their picture on the web.
• Read how stories that defined our generation were told at the time they happened.
• See how the media described your favorite team before the season started and compare it to now.

A few notes: searches can take a little time (can you imagine the server space it takes to archive 85 billion pages?) and sometimes the images on older searches don’t appear.

Click here to start searching now!