TechStuff The Internet Archive
May 6, 2024
Explore the origins and challenges of Internet Archive, preserving web knowledge and online content. Learn about web crawlers, data storage methods, and legal complexities. Discover historical knowledge preservation and modern connectivity solutions, from Library of Alexandria to in-car Wi-Fi.
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Purpose Of The Internet Archive
- The Internet Archive was created to preserve volatile web content and snapshots across time.
- It lets users see how sites looked in different eras and recovers content that would otherwise vanish.
Founders' Backgrounds
- Brewster Kahle and Bruce Gilliat co-founded the Internet Archive after careers building search and indexing tools.
- Kahle acted as the public face while Gilliat retained a more private profile.
WAIS Prefigured Modern Search
- Kahle's earlier work on WAIS aimed to make internet documents discoverable before the web took off.
- WAIS introduced ideas like natural-language searching that foreshadowed modern search engines.