If you are my age, you fondly remember “The Rocky and Bullwinkle Show” and my favorite supporting characters: Mr. Peabody and his boy Sherman. Each week, they used their time machine, called the WABAC Machine, to visit historical events that were always just a bit different than what the history books tell us about them. Today, you can take the same sort of trip back into the past of the Internet, with the help of the Internet Archives by using their Wayback Machine.

The Internet Archive is a 501(c)(3) non-profit that is “building a digital library of Internet sites and other cultural artifacts in digital form”. They are providing free access, and it is really easy to sign up and get a “library card” with them. Besides the Wayback Machine, they have forums, and archives of not only the web, but images (including “The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle”), ebooks, audio, and software. They also support a number of interesting projects and even have a jobs listing!

With all of that, they don’t really cover everything that happens on the Internet. I went looking for back issues of The Tablet Post and was disappointed to find out that it wasn’t in the archives. I was less disappointed to find that they did have a snapshot of Tablet ROMs. So, while you will not find everything you may be looking for, the amount of information available is remarkable!

If you are researching anything that has anything to do with the Internet, then the Internet Archives is a good place to start. Be sure to let us know about your experiences by dropping a line to Reporter@thenetworkpost.com. We would really like to hear about it, and would be happy to publish your experiences here.

Have fun!