I've always thought that it is. I'm always grateful that someone is recording what we are doing and keeping it safe... and out of the control of governments.
For that reason, I've been a regular contributor for years and I've just renewed my tiny monthly subscription. I was reminded to renew by this article in PCgamer. The figures are amazing!
A few years ago I used Wayback Machine to find the earliest version of hostels.com when it was created by @darren-overby at his hostel the Pacific Tradewinds Hostel in San Francisco.
At the dawn of the web in the mid 1990s, Darren registered the domain name and asked hostel guests to type in hostel information from their guide books / lists into a database on a Macintosh Classic computer, which he then scripted to write the HTML pages of hostel listings on the website.
It's probably one of the first examples of an online accommodation listing website, guides, and advertising (they had a few banner ads).
To honour Darren's work I host the earliest version of the website at h0stels.com (hostels with a zero) for people to explore and enjoy. Incredibly, the original HTML code that is decades old still works on modern browsers!
Darren sold his website to Hostelworld in the early 2000s and the rest is history!
Wow! H0stels is so deliciously retro! Glad you feel the same way about the importance of archiving, Ian. I'm so impressed that I can visit the first iterations of the British Guild of Travel Writers website (I was webmaster) and even drill down a couple of layers!
Is the Internet Archive (Wayback Machine) important?
Is the Internet Archive (Wayback Machine) important?
was posted by Alastair McKenzie
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Featured on Dec 4, 2025 (yesterday).
Is the Internet Archive (Wayback Machine) important? is not rated yet.
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I've always thought that it is. I'm always grateful that someone is recording what we are doing and keeping it safe... and out of the control of governments.
For that reason, I've been a regular contributor for years and I've just renewed my tiny monthly subscription. I was reminded to renew by this article in PCgamer. The figures are amazing!
www.pcgamer.com/hardware/til-the-wayback-machine-saves-150-000-gigabytes-of-webpages-every-day-and-lives-in-a-church-in-san-francisco/
It's too easy to just forget about organisations like this. I also donate to Wikipedia because I use it daily (so does AI!) and I'd hate to lose it.
What do you think?
It sure is!
A few years ago I used Wayback Machine to find the earliest version of hostels.com when it was created by @darren-overby at his hostel the Pacific Tradewinds Hostel in San Francisco.
At the dawn of the web in the mid 1990s, Darren registered the domain name and asked hostel guests to type in hostel information from their guide books / lists into a database on a Macintosh Classic computer, which he then scripted to write the HTML pages of hostel listings on the website.
It's probably one of the first examples of an online accommodation listing website, guides, and advertising (they had a few banner ads).
To honour Darren's work I host the earliest version of the website at h0stels.com (hostels with a zero) for people to explore and enjoy. Incredibly, the original HTML code that is decades old still works on modern browsers!
Darren sold his website to Hostelworld in the early 2000s and the rest is history!
Wow! H0stels is so deliciously retro! Glad you feel the same way about the importance of archiving, Ian. I'm so impressed that I can visit the first iterations of the British Guild of Travel Writers website (I was webmaster) and even drill down a couple of layers!
Here's a few gems of the earliest versions of some well known travel websites:
Expedia (1996)
web.archive.org/web/19961221145824/http://expedia.com
Lonely Planet (1996)
web.archive.org/web/19961109172129/http://www.lonelyplanet.com
Skyscanner (2003)
web.archive.org/web/20030619234734/http://www.skyscanner.net
G Adventures (2011)
web.archive.org/web/20111015062243/http://www.gadventures.com
Priceline (1999)
web.archive.org/web/19990208005856/http://priceline.com
AirBnB (2009)
web.archive.org/web/20090305093538/http://www.airbnb.com
Travel Massive (2011)
web.archive.org/web/20120502034819/http://www.travelmassive.com
Skift (2012)
web.archive.org/web/20121222170630/http://skift.com
Travelfish (2004)
web.archive.org/web/20040611045136/http://www.travelfish.org
Tripadvisor (2002)
web.archive.org/web/20021112154657/http://www.tripadvisor.com