What is the Wayback Machine, and How Does it Work?
The Wayback Machine is a digital archive of the World Wide Web and other information on the Internet. It was founded by Brewster Kahle and Bruce Gilliaton May 10, 1996 and launched publicly in 2001 by the Internet Archive, a non-profit organization based in San Francisco, California.
The Wayback Machine allows users to see archived versions of web pages from the past. It stores snapshots of web pages and makes them available to the public. The Wayback Machine does not store the original web pages. It stores only the HTML code and the images from the web pages.
When a user accesses the Wayback Machine, they can view the snapshot of the website or web page that was taken at the date and time that they specify.
The Wayback Machine is a valuable resource for researchers, historians, and anyone who wants to view a website from the past. It is especially useful for viewing web pages that have been deleted or removed from the Internet.
How Wayback Machine Can Help You Preserve Your Website History
The Wayback Machine allows users to see archived versions of web pages throughout the years. This can be helpful if you want to see how your website has changed over time or if you need to access content that is no longer available on your current website.
To use the Wayback Machine, simply enter the URL of the website you want to view into the search bar. The Wayback Machine will then show you a list of archived versions of the website, from the earliest to the most recent.
How to Use the Wayback Machine to Revive Lost Content
If you’re looking for a way to revive lost content, Wayback Machine can be a useful tool.
You can do this manually by simply entering the exact page URL that you want to check, and from there you can choose time stamp to the most recent changes you made on that particular page. If you are retrieving a lot of pages or let’s say full website content with hundreds of pages. I strongly suggest that you use a tool called Archivarix (this is an affiliate link and I will earrn a small commission if you use my link).
Full Website Recovery using Archivarix for WayBack Machine
I had a client who needed my help to retrieve their website content, as they have encountered a problem with their web hosting account and they can’t do a website restoration, so we had no choice but to use WayBack Machine to get all the content.
I told them that there is a tool that can be used to retrieve an HTML copy of a WordPress website, and from there we can start recreating the website theme design from scratch and then import the retrieved content from Archivarix.
What I love about Archivarix is that it was able to retrieve all the pages of my client’s website and was able to put a live version on my Cpanel web hosting, as it would take days or weeks for me to retrieve all the content manually. I just spent $4 worth of credits to retrieve 1046 files including all the pages of the website.
You can hire a virtual assistant to do this job, but the cost can go up to a few hundreds of dollars depending on their location.
Archivarix Webarchive recovery tool is effective, and you just need to deposit an initial amount to your account as low as $10 and the cost of recovering your website pages depends on the number of pages. There is 200 free limit, and if you hit this limit. You will be asked to pay the remaining credits for you to restore the remaining pages of your website on top of the free 200 files limit.
Overall, the Wayback Machine is a valuable resource for digital analysis and research. It can provide insights into how websites have changed over time, and can be used to access websites that are no longer available.