Decoder with Nilay Patel How the Wayback Machine is fighting linkrot
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Sep 5, 2024 Mark Graham, director of the Wayback Machine at the Internet Archive, joins the discussion about the critical issue of link rot and the ongoing effort to preserve internet history. He explains how the Wayback Machine allows users to view snapshots of past websites, combating the loss of digital content. The conversation dives into the challenges of archiving a rapidly changing web landscape, including the impact of closed platforms on access to information and the emotional weight of preserving our online cultural legacy.
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Web Loss and Wayback Machine's Impact
- Roughly one-third of the older web (10-15 years old) is gone due to various reasons.
- The Wayback Machine has saved much of this content, reducing the actual loss to about one-ninth.
Prioritizing New Content over Archiving
- Websites often prioritize new content over preserving old content during upgrades.
- Mark Graham's experience at NBC News highlighted this, as deadlines often overshadowed archiving efforts.
MTV News and Proactive Archiving
- After MTV News shut down, the Internet Archive already had its archives due to ongoing efforts.
- The Internet Archive receives daily requests from individuals and organizations to preserve at-risk websites.