If you’ve never heard of it, here’s a brief description of the Internet Archive, commonly referred to as the Wayback Machine, from its web site:
The Internet Archive, a 501(c)(3) non-profit, is building a digital library of Internet sites and other cultural artifacts in digital form. Like a paper library, we provide free access to researchers, historians, scholars, the print disabled, and the general public. Our mission is to provide Universal Access to All Knowledge.
We began in 1996 by archiving the Internet itself, a medium that was just beginning to grow in use. Like newspapers, the content published on the web was ephemeral – but unlike newspapers, no one was saving it. Today we have 20+ years of web history accessible through the Wayback Machine and we work with 625+ library and other partners through our Archive-It program to identify important web pages.
I found it fascinating to go back as early as I could and look st the early days of the Internet.
Here’s a screenshot of my Villanova homepage from 2001. Hard to believe this was 19 years ago You may recognize the photo – it’s Dennis Quaid. It was way better than any picture I could have put up of myself (the picture you can barely see at the bottom is my high school graduation photo). I still remember the day one of my students stopped by my office early in the semester and somehow we got talking about my homepage. She said that her roommate had come across my homepage and said “Your teacher is really hot.” How disappointing it must have been that first day of class…
Here’s what my first blog post looked like, on January 1, 2015:
And now here are some more famous web site, from way back:
Google (1998):
Amazon (1999):
TheFacebook (2004):
Apple (1997):
Microsoft (1998):
Twitter (2006):
*image from Programming Shots
Thanks for the trip down Memory Lane before you became famous. It is fun to look back to see how far we’ve come.
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It is a fun resource to browse through, but it can suck you in.
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Looks like Amazon could do with a revamp! It still looks pretty similar imo.
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I agree; the basic outline of the site has not changed too much over the past 20 years…
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What a sneaky way to get students into your accounting classes, Jim! I had not heard of this organization, but their efforts are so worthwhile. More than 100,000 pages are added to the internet everyday, at least the last time I checked. Like any library, the curation and retention of many of these are important to our recorded history. Great post, Jim, giving me one more thing to spend my time online playing with!
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Thanks, Brad! It is a worthwhile and fun resource, as well as a great way to waste some time.
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If you’re going to go with a Quaid Brother, better Dennis (than Randy) … One of the Bridges would’ve worked nicely, too. Great piece, Jim.
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Thanks, Michael. I thought Brad Pit would have been stretching it a bit…
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Mr. Clooney would’ve worked in a pinch … Whenever you have a free moment, please check out my first entry on “Friends-of-Kuched” … here’s a quick link and Sunday Spoiler: https://kuched.blog/2020/05/24/bordens-blather/
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I used to have Siri respond to my query “Who am I” with “A George Clooney look-a-like”. I guess I had too much time on my hands that day, and perhaps a beer or two.
And thank you for the award! You are too kind…
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Hahaha ,, You’re welcome.
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omg, this is so fascinating and funny, when you see how far we’ve come in such a relatively short time
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It is fascinating to see how the web has evolved over the past 20-25 years…
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Fun to see these!! Funny how I never notice sites evolving but then when I see these, it’s quite the change!!
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It’s like not seeing someone’s child for several years; the changes seem so dramatic…
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I foresee a new class – History of the Internet.
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I am thinking about a blog that shows some of the web sites that crashed and burn when the dot-com bubble burst…
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That would be very interesting to see. You will have a lot of material to choose from.
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How true, unfortunately…
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Wow… it’s so charming to see the old website 😁
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Google and Amazon kind of look similar. I can’t even think of how awful my first post looked- lol I was such a newbie. Your first post is super sweet though!
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Thanks, Pooja! Were you able to find one of your early posts in the Wayback Machine?
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Yes I did! It looked so plain compared to now lol!
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it’s nice that those old sites are archived somewhere!
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It really is!
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Wow, internet archives. One could get very lost in these I imagine 🙂 Fun post Jim!
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Yes, indeed. This post took twice as long as it should have… 🙂
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No doubts. I know well how easy it is to get sidetracked when researching 🙂
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I’m sure that’s one of the hazards of the trade of being an author… 🙂
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Oh yes. 🙂
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Wow! So, posts I’ve deleted–in recent months, or back in college when I had MySpace–are never really gone? Thanks, Jim. Thanks for adding to my anxiety. 🙂
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Wow, that looks so oldschool! I like it;)
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It might be fun to check what some of your favorite web sited today looked like 20 years ago…
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Yeah, I did check it out, but it didn’t seem to work perfectly on my device. But I found a dutch version of Facebook, so it was ok;D
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That’s pretty cool!
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Wow, this looks great and I’m looking forward to trying it.
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Enjoy – but be careful – you could end up spending a lot of time with it!
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My blog is quite new Jim so it didn’t show up much. But it’s a great activity 🙂
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It’s also fun to check out old web sites from back in the early days of the Internet…
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Ah, that’s a thought 😉
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And possibly time-consuming… 🙂
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Ah ha.
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