3aIT Blog

Our HowTo section this month takes a look at the Wayback Machine. This online tool allows you to view almost any website at various dates going back many years. While many probably use it just to see how their favourite websites have evolved, it can occasionally be a very useful tool if you need to find something from your old website.

Enter the site you want to view snapshots of

Step 1: Go to https://archive.org/web and enter the web address of the site you'd like to view past versions of. We've put our own website in here.


You'll see a list of dates

Step 2: You'll be presented with a list of years in which there's snapshots of the website, and then dates within those years that the snapshot was taken. Pick the year you're interested in.


Pick the date you'd like to view

Step 3: Once you've selected the year, click the specific date that a snapshot has been taken, and you'll be presented with one or more snapshots taken on that day. Pick one of these to jump to your selected website on that day.


View the website

Step 4: You're now looking at a version of the site from the past! Note that it may not work perfectly, especially if there were interactive elements. Additionally, you may find that the menus work in some snapshots and not others.