Keeping Memories of the Internet Alive Through Archiving
The internet has been around for decades and has been an important part of our lives ever since. It has paved the way to communicate with each other in a few clicks or a snap of a finger. It also somehow lessened boredom and enabled us to express ourselves in our own ways.
But there are billions of websites — of which more than 660 million of them are currently active — that existed or are still existing in the digital world. Some of these sites have already been obsolete and have been long forgotten. If you want your website to be preserved to eternity, you should install a web archive plugin.
The Library of Alexandria in ancient Egypt was once the world’s largest library until it was destroyed around 48 BC. The total amount of archived internet files today can be comparable to that of the Library of Alexandria’s size. At present, the Internet Archive Wayback Machine has archived close to 400 billion web pages — all collected since its inception back in 1996. Apparently, the total file size of all web pages consolidate is equivalent to 80 million filing cabinets, each with four layers filled to the brim with paper.
Aside from more than 300 billion web pages, the Wayback Machine also houses more than 11 million texts and books and around 4 million audio recordings. Likewise, it contains more than 3 million video files, 1 million saved images, and around 100,000 software applications. However, these figures continue to increase every week.
Why you should archive web pages
Remember Friendster, Myspace, and GeoCities? Can you even remember how these websites even looked like before? Thankfully, these websites have been captured in the Internet Archive Wayback Machine. It is a web service that allows users to view archived websites. Users will simply type the URL, indicate a specific date and year, and you can already see the website’s archived version. By accessing past websites, you can see how online information evolves over time. You can see the difference in how websites looked like back then as compared to now. The Internet Archive can even preserve even the ads on that particular website. Having this kind of plugin can also keep and save your web content for future reference. Just imagine how huge the responsibility of archiving billions of files will be, considering that the internet is a huge place that is constantly evolving over time. If you don’t have back up files, you may risk losing your web content forever. This is one reason why internet archiving can be important.Like the Library of Alexandria
The Library of Alexandria in ancient Egypt was once the world’s largest library until it was destroyed around 48 BC. The total amount of archived internet files today can be comparable to that of the Library of Alexandria’s size. At present, the Internet Archive Wayback Machine has archived close to 400 billion web pages — all collected since its inception back in 1996. Apparently, the total file size of all web pages consolidate is equivalent to 80 million filing cabinets, each with four layers filled to the brim with paper.
Aside from more than 300 billion web pages, the Wayback Machine also houses more than 11 million texts and books and around 4 million audio recordings. Likewise, it contains more than 3 million video files, 1 million saved images, and around 100,000 software applications. However, these figures continue to increase every week.