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Much of the web is ephemeral.
Web pages exist until they don’t. The content on them exists until it’s updated – and then it’s gone.
Unless you go digging in an archive.
Archiving the web is important for cultural and anthropological research. It’s also helpful for business reasons, like competitive analysis. It can even help document or monitor political processes.
Your particular reason for seeking archived content might determine which service works best.
The Wayback Machine is the most commonly known archive.
Screenshot, https://archive.org/web/, January 2023.
The Internet Archive is a nonprofit organization, and the Wayback Machine is the web version of its archive, containing an absolutely massive amount of data.
You can request that it save a webpage in its current state, as well as make use of tools, like an API.
As huge as the Wayback Machine archive is, it’s likely not 100% complete. If you’re having trouble finding something specific or wondering if there are alternatives with more features, these alternatives might help.
I won’t be going over paid SaaS subscriptions, as I don’t consider a paid service a true alternative to a free one provided by a nonprofit.
Let’s go!
1. The Memento Project
Memento is an exceptional alternative to the Wayback Machine because it aggregates several different sources, including the Wayback Machine itself.
On the website, you can access archives from several sources by using the Time Travel tool.
Screenshot, http://timetravel.mementoweb.org/, January 2023.
This is the first distinction that makes Memento so cool, and it includes some of the other archives on this list, too. That means it’s a customizable experience and likely one of the most complete.
Memento’s other distinct feature is the Chrome extension that allows you to select the date on which you’d like to view your current page. This brings the tool to where you’re browsing instead of making you put a URL into a form.
You can also…
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