How the Wayback Machine is fighting linkrot
Decoder with Nilay Patel
Content is Fleeting; Archive for Stability
Content drift often occurs on the web, where the same URL can present different material over time, complicating the ability to know what was previously available. The absence of a comprehensive version control system for most web content means that users can access varying information at the same URL without any notification of changes. While certain applications like Wikipedia utilize a version control system to track changes, the web as a whole lacks this structure. Consequently, tools like the Wayback Machine are essential as they provide an archived, time-based view of URLs, allowing users to access past versions of web content.
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