[WEB4LIB] FYI: Internet Archive Launches Wayback Machine

[Charles P. Hobbs]

Gerry Mckiernan wrote:

>
> INTERNET ARCHIVE LAUNCHES WAYBACK MACHINE
>
> Free Service Enables Users to Access Archived Versions of Web Sites Dating
> from 1996
>
> SAN FRANCISCO (October 24, 2001)
>
> The Internet Archive [ http://www.archive.org/ ], a comprehensive
> library of Internet sites and other cultural artifacts in digital form,
> today launched the Wayback Machine, a free service allowing people to
> access and use archived versions of past web pages. For the first time,
> all members of the public will be able to search and view the Internet
> Archive*s enormous collection of web sites, dating back to 1996 and
> comprising over 10 billion web pages.

There's also a pretty good writeup in today's LA Times:
http://www.latimes.com/business/la-000085039oct25.story

Yes, copyright is an issue...

I played with the database a bit this morning (http://web.archive.org). Pretty

neat, but there are a few things to remember:

* You can search by url, but not text. (The analogy: an OPAC or card catalog
that you can use to locate books, but doesn't actually carry the full text of
the books in its records).
* Searching can be slow, and occasionally you'll see a "500 Server Error".
Just
keep trying
* Not everything is archived: password protected pages, or those protected by
"robots.txt" files won't appear. Also, the archive will remove pages upon
request
of their creators.
* Links in archived pages will take you to the corresponding page in the
archive,
subject to the above conditions.


> --

Charles P. Hobbs
King Drew Health Science Library
http://www.cdrewu.edu/kdhsl