7 Exciting Ways to Explore the Internet Archive

In 1996, as the internet rapidly expanded with new websites, Brewster Kahle and Bruce Gilliat observed a concerning trend: websites were vanishing just as quickly. To address this, they established the Internet Archive, an initiative dedicated to crawling the web and archiving its pages for historical preservation. Initially, the archive's digital collection of saved web pages remained private. However, in 2001, Kahle and Gilliat opened access to the public, introducing the now-famous “Wayback Machine.”

Over time, the Internet Archive’s mission has grown from merely documenting internet history to striving for “universal access to all human knowledge.” Today, it has transformed into a vast, multifaceted digital library, offering an extensive range of media types.

Discover seven enjoyable ways to make the most of it.

1. Dive into the history of the internet.

The Wayback Machine—inspired by Mr. Peabody’s WABAC machine from The Rocky and Bullwinkle Show—remains a robust tool, housing over 860 billion web pages and growing. Its homepage showcases a rotating selection of archived pages from previous years (such as the White House website from 1996). Additionally, you can search for specific keywords or URLs using the search bar at the top. For instance, you could explore the DVDs Netflix.com (or NetFlix.com, as it was known) featured on April 27, 1999. (Titles like Antz, The Waterboy, and I Still Know What You Did Last Summer were among them.)

The Wayback Machine also serves as a practical solution when encountering broken links or pages that redirect to a homepage. Simply input the original URL into the Wayback Machine to access an archived version of the page.

2. Access a digital library of books.

The IA’s Text Archive is a valuable resource for finding books unavailable at your local library. With over 39 million texts of various genres, many have been added through partnerships with organizations like the Library of Congress and the Boston Public Library.

Public domain works are freely accessible, but some copyrighted materials have limitations. The IA employs controlled digital lending, a method where a physical book is digitized and lent to one user at a time. This approach is based on the principle that owning a book allows you to lend it, provided the physical copy isn’t loaned simultaneously and only one digital copy is borrowed at a time, aiming to comply with copyright regulations.

However, since publishers treat e-books as distinct products, not everyone supports this reasoning. A group of publishers recently won a lawsuit against the IA over certain lending practices. As a result, books still in print with available e-book editions are generally not borrowable from the IA, except for specific exceptions, such as accommodations for individuals with reading disabilities. The IA continues to lend out-of-print books and those without e-book versions.

3. Browse through a variety of magazines.

While your magazine collection may be limited to what fits on your bookshelf, the Internet Archive’s The Magazine Rack offers an expansive selection of over 383,000 digital magazine issues, neatly categorized by topics like knitting, wrestling, and humor. If you were to read one issue of MAD magazine from the Rack daily, it would take you roughly 15 months to finish them all.

4. Enjoy live concert recordings.

The IA’s Live Music Archive is a goldmine for music enthusiasts, boasting over 264,000 audio files of complete live performances. According to the IA, all content is contributed by artists who support sharing their work non-commercially, ensuring no commercial releases are included.

This archive offers a fantastic way to revisit concerts you attended or discover ones you missed. Fans of the Grateful Dead will be thrilled with the collection’s 17,000+ uploads, the largest in the archive. Artists like Elliott Smith, Tegan and Sara, and John Mayer are also prominently featured.

5. Stream movies and TV shows.

The Moving Image Archive serves as the IA’s central repository for all video content, ranging from films and TV series to technical instructional videos. (The “Music Video Bin” is particularly popular, with Rick Astley’s “Never Gonna Give You Up” leading as the most-watched video, surpassing half a million views.)

Dive into a rich assortment of episodes from Lucille Ball’s The Lucy Show and a substantial collection of Charlie Chaplin’s early work, alongside Old Hollywood gems like His Girl Friday (1940) and Casablanca (1942). While much of this content is available elsewhere, the Moving Image Archive offers an ad-free viewing experience.

6. Relive childhood memories with classic arcade games.

The IA’s Internet Arcade brings back the joy of arcade gaming with nearly 2700 digital recreations of coin-operated games from the 1970s to the 1990s—featuring titles like Q*Bert, Paperboy, Joust, and Marble Madness.

Adapting physical arcade games to a digital format—especially across diverse devices and browsers—can be challenging. If you encounter issues, archivist Jason Scott and Armchair Arcade provide useful troubleshooting advice. 

7. Share your own creations.

While utilizing the Internet Archive’s resources helps support its mission, contributing your own materials is equally impactful. Remember, copyright laws still apply: Uploading something like the full Barbie movie without permission from Warner Bros. isn’t allowed. However, public domain materials and your original works are welcome. Whether it’s your great-grandparents’ love letters or your college short films, the Internet Archive is an ideal platform to share them. Find out how to upload files here.