A friend said my archive links were just dead ends now

I shared a link to a cool old GeoCities page I found, but my friend clicked it and got a 404 error. He told me, "You can't just post the original link, it's gone. You need to use the Wayback Machine." I felt pretty dumb because I didn't know about that. Now I always check archive.org first before I post anything old. Does anyone have a good method for finding the best saved snapshot?

3 comments

3 Comments

palmer.ryan1mo ago

Yeah, @the_robin has the right idea. I always sort the results by date to find the most complete snapshot.

the_robin1mo ago

Ever try looking for the page title on the archive itself? Sometimes the direct link fails but a search there finds it.

parker_foster531mo ago

Oh man, I totally get that. I read this article once about how much of the early web is just gone forever if no one saved it. It's a real bummer. What @the_robin said is super smart, searching right on the archive site itself. I usually grab the link and just paste it into the Wayback Machine, but if that fails, I'll try a search for the site name. Sorting by date helps find a version that actually loads all the pictures and stuff. It takes a bit of digging sometimes.