Internet Delorean

For over a year now, I've been lamenting the fact that the social site Friendster is gone.  With all my friends already in Facebook, what really upset me is that I've lost my blog site which I started in 2005. Of course, I backed it up like the cautious person that I am.  It just so happened that my computer and the hard drive were both stolen.


Well, what do you know, apparently my husband had the answer all along. One night he nonchalantly blurted out: "Why don't you use the wayback machine?" Boink! Had he been keeping that one from me all along?!


If you haven't heard about it too, then send me the address to the rock you live under. Then we can have tea and crumpets together, and watch The Rocky and Bullwinkle Show which inspired  the name Wayback Machine. Basically, this website provides an archive of webpages across time. It is in no way comprehensive, so, what's the uses for mooses here?  That's my expression for "why should you explore it?" Here are the very few reasons I came up with:

1. Just for the simple Back to the Future experience.  Here's star wars in 1997, when Jarjar Binks did not yet exist, and now.
2. Visit a site you miss which is no longer there, like askjeeves.com. Remember that site? It is now ask.com 
3. Reminisce the good old days when Google was still in beta in 1996 and the humble beginnings of Amazon.
4. See what happened in the world 10 years ago, say, on valentine's day. CNN can show you that breaking news here. (Apparently, scientists say a cloned cat was born! And it made it to CNN's front page!)
5. If you're a pack rat, this one's for you - Find a manual for an obsolete product from the manufacturer’s old website!
6. If you want to be depressed, compare stock and house prices between now and the yesteryears.
7. Reminisce on the glory days of your favorite NFL team. Ravens vs. Giants in the 2001 SuperBowl headlined nfl.com that year.
8. Find an old photo of your sister in her high school's defunct website and blackmail share a laugh with her. (I'm still on the lookout for this one.)
9. Like me, dig up your old blog and see how pathetic and remove all notions that you were too cool for school back then. Speaking of the old blog, I've added select posts in this blog for posterity. Just check the entries from 2005 until 2009. It's amazing how much I've evolved too. I took myself way too seriously then, and I have a sicker better sense of humor now!

Curious yet? Well, what are you waiting for? Check out the Wayback Machine and let me know if you come across some cool old websites from the past!