Have you ever heard of the term “Internet Archive”? Many people who are involved in web work or who use the Internet on a regular basis may know this.
When you hear the term Internet Archive, many people think of a service that allows you to save information on web pages and check their past status. However, the service itself is not called that way; the name actually refers to the organization’s name.
In this article, we will explain the meaning of the Internet Archive, how to check past websites, how to delete them, etc.
What is Internet Archive?
Many people think that a service that allows you to save information on web pages and check their past status is called an “Internet Archive,” but this does not actually refer to this service itself. First, I will explain the meaning and overview.
A non-profit organization that operates a web page archive viewing service.
The Internet Archive is a non-profit organization that operates a web page archive viewing service. Founded in 1996 by Brewster Kale.
We offer a free tool called “Wayback Machine,” which allows you to view information on past websites and those that have been deleted. Things like this that allow you to check the past status of websites are often collectively referred to as the Internet Archive, but in reality, it can be said that this “Wayback Machine” is responsible for this function.
Acts like a web library
It was first developed to allow people all over the world to view digitally published information and data for free. According to
the website
, the amount of data currently stored exceeds 828 billion pages, and it plays the role of a web library.
Although the information is originally intended to be provided to researchers, the data that keeps track of changes in websites can be used by people who are thinking about implementing
SEO
measures, such as researching sites that are easy to view and respond well to users. It is very useful for people.
Services provided by Internet Archive
The Internet Archive offers many different services. By utilizing this service, we are contributing to making it possible for anyone in the world to check information and data equally. The five commonly used ones are:
Wayback Machine
Wayback Machine is a tool that allows you to view past website information and deleted items, and is one of the most popular services. It is not uncommon for people to say that the device they had been using for a long time was actually a Wayback Machine. As mentioned above, the amount of data currently stored exceeds 828 billion pages, and it has advanced crawling capabilities, so it is possible that Wayback Machine can view information that cannot be found with other tools. is getting higher. This is a very convenient service that many people can utilize.
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Wayback Machine
Archive-It
Archive-It is a service that allows you to save various data and create archives without any specialized knowledge. Using the operation screen provided by Archive-It, you can easily save specified websites and pages, and view them at any time or perform full-text searches. However, please note that Archive-It is a paid service.
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Archive-It
Open Library
Open Library, as the name suggests, is an open digital library service that allows you to check all the e-books in the Internet Archive, from children’s books to academic books. The ultimate goal is to make all publications available to everyone, and we collect information about publications and provide access to them. . It also provides a reading function in the browser and automatically generates a table of contents, so it can be said to be an easy-to-use service for those who want to collect information about books.
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Open Library
Political TV Ad Archive
Political TV Ad Archive is a service that archives political TV advertisements and social media advertisements. By combining fact-checking with reporting that the public can trust, we are able to collect highly reliable information on politics and the current situation. It says it is “partnering with trusted journalism organizations,” so even the general public will be able to obtain information worthy of trust.
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Political TV Ad Archive
Software Archive
Software Archive is a service that stores a wide variety of legally downloadable software and related information. Not only can you get information about the software itself, but you can also check out news related to it. You can also get a lot of information about the game’s software, and check out the game’s high scores and skill replays.
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Software Archive
How to use Wayback Machine
Wayback Machine is the most popular archive service, but it can be used in a variety of situations. From here, we will explain how to use the Wayback Machine for each scene.
How to check past websites
Here’s how to check your past websites with Wayback Machine.
1. Enter the URL or keyword in the search window
2. The cached dates are displayed in a bar graph at the top of the screen, so click on the year in which the bar graph is displayed.
3. Click on the year you want to check, a calendar will be displayed, then specify the month and day you want to check and click (dates with blue circles are the days when data is saved)
4. By clicking on the date you want to check, you can check the status of the website at that time (links are also connected, so you can check other pages as well)
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Wayback Machine
How to save a website manually
Wayback Machine basically automatically caches and collects website information, but the timing of caching is unknown and is not necessarily done every day. Therefore, you can save your website manually. It is a good idea to use this when the crawler visits are infrequent or when you want to keep the current cache. Here’s how to save your website manually:
1. Enter the URL of the page you want to save in the search window and click “SAVE PAGE”
2. Save process completed
How to delete old websites
If you wish to delete past websites or pages stored on the Wayback Machine, you must send an email to the Internet Archive, which operates the Wayback Machine, to request removal.
There is no form provided, so please send an email to “info@archive.org”. To delete a website, you need to send the URL you want to delete and proof that you are the operator of the website you want to delete. Also, since the Internet Archive is an American organization, deletion requests must be made in English.
How to restrict crawler access
If you don’t need to delete past content, but you don’t want future websites to be cached, there is a way to restrict crawler access.
Write the following tag in robots.txt and upload it to the top directory of the server.
User-agent: ia_archiver
Disallow: /
The meaning is to “disallow” crawling by the Internet Archive, and as a result, your site will not remain on the Wayback Machine.
Things you can’t check with the Wayback Machine
Although Wayback Machine continues to store a huge amount of data, there are some pages and data that cannot be viewed. The following are the main things that cannot be confirmed with the Wayback Machine.
Websites where manual saving is not progressing
The Wayback Machine will not be able to confirm any files that have not been manually saved. The Wayback Machine basically caches automatically, but it doesn’t necessarily do it every day. Therefore, it is no longer known when automatic saving will occur. Therefore, we recommend manually saving your website if you want it to remain in an archive such as the Wayback Machine. Registration requires a certain amount of time, so it may take some time for it to be saved. While the save is not completed, it will not be displayed even if you search, but if you continue to manually save it properly, it will remain in the archive.
Websites restricted by ID etc.
Websites whose viewing is restricted by ID etc. cannot be checked using the Wayback Machine. Anyone can check the Wayback Machine data, but some websites require IDs and passwords required for viewing. You cannot view them unless you enter your ID and password and clear security.
Websites requested for deletion
Wayback Machine cannot check websites that have been requested to be removed. Depending on the website, there are some people who do not want past data to be saved for various situations and reasons. In such cases, it is possible to delete past data on web pages by sending an email to the Internet Archive, which operates the Wayback Machine, and requesting deletion. No matter how much you search for a website that has been requested to be deleted, you will not be able to view it.
Internet Archive can be used for SEO measures
Services such as Wayback Machine can be used for SEO measures because they allow you to view information on past websites and those that have been deleted. SEO is an abbreviation for search engine optimization, and it stands for “Search Engine Optimization.” By creating a website with a structure that is easily evaluated by search engines such as Google, and a website that includes keywords, you can display your website at the top of search results and increase the number of users who view it through searches. This refers to measures taken to achieve success.
It can mainly be used in the following ways.
You can investigate the top websites when the search ranking changes.
Google regularly updates its
algorithms
, and analyzing these algorithms and producing results requires very advanced skills. I’m sure there are many people who are in charge of web and SEO at companies who are actually reading this and are having trouble thinking about it.
In such cases, it is very effective to use a tool such as Wayback Machine to investigate the top websites when the search ranking changes due to updates. It would be very effective to analyze what trends there are in the media and content that ranked high, what elements they had that gave them good ratings from Google, and incorporate them into your own media. You could say it is.
For example, let’s say a competitor’s media increases their search rankings significantly by adding the element “A.” Even in such cases, by comparing your competitors’ current media with their past media in the Wayback Machine, adding the “A” element will improve your ranking from Google and rank you higher. It is possible to conduct a survey. By repeating this kind of research, you will be able to include good elements in your own media.
You can check trends etc.
By conducting multiple surveys using tools such as the Wayback Machine, you can also check trends on websites.
Trends change rapidly and are subject to changes due to things like Google algorithm updates. In order to keep up with the rapid pace of change, it is necessary to research multiple top websites that are likely to produce results. Those ranked high are likely to have taken measures such as updating Google’s algorithm, or are taking measures as soon as possible. By making good use of tools like the Wayback Machine, you will be able to conduct multiple surveys and develop your company’s policies and trends in response to algorithm updates.
You can keep information about past websites and pages.
When running a website, there may be pages that you would like to keep for future research, or you may want to record the current configuration so that you can revert to the original configuration if you change the configuration and it does not have much effect. There are problems unique to operators, such as running out of money. By using the service at such times and saving website pages, you will be able to view past configurations and pages at any time.
If you change the structure and get a higher ranking, you can look at the past structure to see things like “what changes led to SEO measures” and “what factors improved the evaluation?” You will be able to analyze it while If you understand the factors as a result of the analysis, you can add more elements or apply them to other media. On the other hand, even if you change the configuration and your search ranking goes down, there is something that saves past information, so you can restore it while checking that information.
You can check the quality of used domains.
By using Wayback Machine, you can check the quality of used domains.
One way to carry out SEO measures smoothly and get results as quickly as possible is to use second-hand domains. This is a method that allows you to reuse and operate a domain that already has a history of use, inheriting its previous reputation. If it is a good domain, it has strong domain power and may be able to smoothly improve the effectiveness of SEO measures.
However, if the used domain you purchased has been penalized by Google in the past or has an extremely low number of backlinks, it may be difficult to achieve good results. This is because depending on the genre, you may be penalized or receive a bad reputation. Even if you spend a lot of money to buy a used domain, you don’t want to get results because you bought it without knowing about the situation.
By using the Wayback Machine wisely, you can check what kind of content the used domain you are considering purchasing has been published and how it has been operated. You can check in advance to see if the quality is high enough.
You can check changes in URL structure
Wayback Machine saves not only the website structure, but also past URL data, so you can check changes in the URL structure. You can check what changes have been made and when they were made. Therefore, when using a used domain, be sure to check which used domain is on the Wayback Machine and check the domain power.
A tool that allows you to check past websites other than Wayback Machine
The Wayback Machine is generally the most popular, but there are other tools besides the Wayback Machine that allow you to check past websites. There are many other free tools out there, so find one that works for you. From here, we will introduce tools that allow you to check past websites other than the Wayback Machine.
Stanford Web Archive Portal
This service is operated by Stanford University, an extremely prestigious private university in the United States. It is a service operated by an American university, and although there are fewer sites than Wayback Machine, it also collects several Japanese sites, making it easy for Japanese people to use. The search method and site design are very similar to Wayback Machine, so those who have experience using Wayback Machine will feel comfortable using it. It also collects different information than the Wayback Machine, so it is effective to use the two separately.
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Stanford Web Archive Portal
Library of Congress
Library of Congress is a service operated by the Library of Congress. We collect data from a single website at various frequencies, such as once a week, once a month, or once a quarter. Additionally, it is possible to search electronic versions of library materials as well, which will be convenient for people who use library materials.
Citation:
Library of Congress
UK Parliament Web Archive
The UK Parliament Web Archive is a service operated by the British Library in the United Kingdom. Not only website information, but also PDFs, images, and videos from the website are collected. The collected data is stored in a total of four libraries, including the British Library and a branch of the British Library, so even if data stored in one library is lost, it can be recovered from other data. It has become. Therefore, it can be said that the security of information and data storage is high.
Source:
UK Parliament Web Archive
Web Gyotaku
Web Gyotaku is a service operated by Affinity Co., Ltd., a Japanese company.
Rather than crawling and collecting data like Wayback Machine, users can save data by specifying the website they want to save and entering the URL. Since it was created by a Japanese company, it is easy to understand how to proceed with preservation.
When using the Internet, a surprising number of cases occur: “I bookmarked something and was planning to look at it later, but then I realized that it had been closed.” There are also other cases where the domain has expired or has been renamed to another site. By using Web Gyotaku, you can always check the status at the time you took the web Gyotaku, even if the site content is changed or deleted.
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Web Gyotaku
WARP
WARP is a website for the Internet material collection and preservation project run by the National Diet Library of Japan.
The information posted is limited to information within Japan, and targets are mainly national institutions, corporations, institutions, national universities, political parties, etc. Private media is collected and stored based on the permission of the operator.
Saved websites can be searched by URL, title, publishing company name, bibliographic ID, etc., and since collection is done in small target units, the frequency of collection is determined for each target. can be said to be a feature.
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WARP
Points to note when using the Internet Archive
As explained above, the Internet Archive’s services are extremely important. In today’s world, where the web is rapidly developing, you will be able to enjoy greater benefits by using these services. However, one thing to keep in mind is that the information and data stored in the Internet Archive is originally intended for “use for research purposes.”
It is not intended to be used for business purposes, so please be careful when using it for your own website management or SEO measures. The information and data that is collected and stored can be used free of charge, as it may be safe to store, permission has been obtained, or the copyright has expired. Please understand that it is up to the user to decide whether to use the service for any reason.
summary
In this article, we provided an overview of the Internet Archive, how to check past websites, how to delete them, etc.
The Internet Archive is a non-profit organization that operates an archive viewing service for web pages.The Internet Archive is a non-profit organization that operates an archive viewing service for web pages. We provide tools such as “. The amount of data stored on the Wayback Machine currently exceeds 828 billion pages, and by utilizing this huge amount of data, it can be used for SEO measures. It can mainly be used in the following ways.
However, one thing to keep in mind is that the information and data are originally intended for “use for research purposes.” Please understand that it is the responsibility of the user to decide for what reason they use it.
There are various archive services other than Wayback Machine, and most of them are available for free. Please take advantage of the archive service and utilize it for your own website management.