With technological advancement coming each day, the majority of the web is short-lived. Web pages are constantly developing and changing. All the content that exists on any web page now is removed from the website as soon as a better version of it is available. But You can find the removed content only by digging in the archives. Therefore, archiving plays a crucial role in web research and development. It helps in bettering the analysis of any web page and comparing it with others. Wayback Machines are filled with a plethora of data and hence are useful in areas related to archives.
Top 5 Best Wayback Machine Sites
1. The Memento Project
Memento is among the best options for a Wayback Machine as it assembles not just one but various sources, along with the Wayback Machine. The website provides its users with a tool, Time Travel, that helps in accessing archives.
- Memento is a personalized experience as it allows you to choose the data from a variety of available data.
- The project also offers a Chrome extension allowing you to finalize a date for viewing your present page.
- Moreover, you can even take a screenshot of the page and create a link for it. This makes citation easier.
2. Archive.today
Another tool that offers a snapshot service. Through this tool, you can save links for current pages and visit them anytime you want. The tool also offers advanced search engines that allow you to search for the saved snapshots.
- Archive.today has a Chrome extension and it is also available as an Android app.
- You might find many search results in Memento from Archive.today.
3. WebCite
WebCite has features that are more useful for journalists, publishers, authors, and academics. You will find numerous ways to develop and display archived pages. But you can not make additional requests during publishing.
- With WebCite, you can upload documents directly to the site.
- WebCite is a time-saving tool as it scans each link that is uploaded with the document and develops archives for every link.
- You can even add specific links for your content that the readers can click on to make snapshots of it.
4. GitHub
GitHub is an amazing platform for developing as well as collaborating. The tool is useful for public projects as well as open-source coding. Therefore, if you are searching for tools that will help in developing codes and software, you must directly visit GitHub.
- There are both free and paid plans. But the features vary depending upon the plan.
- You can also enjoy the free 15GB storage that the tool offers.
5. Country-Specific Web Archives
There are many web archives that are run by specific countries and they are extremely useful for people looking for sites that are specific to location, or even country. Country-Specific archives have detailed information about the respective country as they are inclined toward a single country.
- Some archive websites like Memento, gather information from various country-specific web archives.
- Some of the famous Country-Specific web archives are The UK Web Archive, Web Archive Singapore, etc.
FAQs
1. What is the difference between green and blue in Wayback Machine?
Green and Blue in Wayback Machine refer to the status code that the crawlers get. Green implies a 3nn code i.e., redirect. Whereas, blues refers to a 2nn code i.e., good.
2. What is the alternative to a wayback website?
Here are some alternatives to a wayback website-
- Internet archive
- Domain tools
- WebCite
- Yubnub
- iTools, etc.
3. Does the Wayback Machine work on every website?
No, the Wayback Machine can only dive into the archives of public websites. Wayback Machine can not collect archives from websites that require passwords.
4. How can you check the old versions of any website?
Here are a few websites with which you can browse through the old version of any website-
- Archive today
- Library of Congress
- Search Engine Cached Pages