原文: 50 Fun Ways to Use the Wayback Machine

By Jessica Hupp

Even in its short history, the Internet has gone through serious growth, often shedding old content for new developments. The Wayback Machine offers an archive of what used to be, and the results of searches on the machine are often quite fun. Here are our suggestions for amusing and useful ways to use the machine for yourself.

1. Find old friends: Reconnect with old chat buddies from your early days online.
2. Find a manual for your obsolete product: Have you bought a discontinued item on eBay? Get the manual from the manufacturer’s old website.
3. Take a look at your own site’s growth: Enjoy a trip down memory lane as you track how your site has grown over time.
4. Create a scavenger hunt: Design a fun hunting game that uses the Wayback Machine to find quirky bits from yesterday’s Internet.
5. Track the commercialization of the Internet: Marvel at how the Internet has become a great tool for marketing and sales.
6. Check out your site’s history: If you bought your domain name from someone, see what it looked like before you got your hands on it.
7. Research a website you’d like to buy: The Wayback Machine is an excellent domainer research tool. Find out if a seller is yanking your chain about any statistics and history by plugging it into the archive.
8. Find old school photos: Check out your old school’s online newsletter to find dorky photos of yourself.
9. Save a lost site: If your hosting company dropped off the face of the earth, use the Wayback Machine to recover some of your work.
10. Reminisce about your old resume: Find your old online resume and enjoy a look back at old jobs.
11. Create an Internet timeline: Track the Internet’s history, or your own, complete with screenshots.
12. Review the history of Internet porn: Take a look at how online porn has evolved over the years.
13. Research conspiracy theories: Sites may be taken down, but with the archive, you can still see what others may not have wanted you to find.
14. Clear your name: If someone accuses you of stealing information, prove to them you had it online first.
15. Find old crappy GIFs: Remember when the Internet was full of stupid smiley animations? Check out the Wayback Machine to snag a few and harass people with them.
16. View a suspended site: Did you go to check out a cool site, only to find out the owner didn’t pay their bill, or overloaded the server? Use the Wayback Machine to pull it up.
17. Show punk kids how cool you used to be: Know a kid who thinks MySpace is about the coolest thing the Internet has ever done? Let them take a look at some of your old favorite sites.
18. Settle a bet about who’s been online longer: Show your buddy that you found the Internet 4 months before he did by finding old forum posts.
19. Create a PDF copy of an old ezine: Retrieve old issues, and preserve them for later reading.
20. Learn from bad design: Take a look at sites from the early Internet to learn about what not to do.
21. Reminisce about your old dotcom job: Visit your dot-com’s defunct site and think about the way things used to be.
22. Compare historical prices: Find out how much a seller paid for the item you’re buying today.
23. Compare page versions: Analyze how a page has changed by comparing two versions side by side.
24. Retrive lost content: Find your old resume, papers, and more.
25. Check out stock prices: See how stock prices have risen and fallen in the past decade or so.
26. Nail a content thief: Prove that you published content before a thief did, and you’ve got a rock solid case against them.
27. Make fun of old predictions that never came true: Find sites that predicted the sky would fall on a certain day, and laugh when you realize that day was 5 years ago.
28. Enjoy pre-coverage of Y2K: Read press releases and worried postings about how Y2K was supposed to screw everything up.
29. Figure out why you dropped in search engine rankings: Take a look at old stuff that used to work to your advantage, and figure out what you need to bring back.
30. Take a look at past elections: Revisit the hype of now-forgotten candidates of elections past.
31. Marvel at the early years of the Internet: In the Web Pioneers collection, you can see some of the sites that shaped the Internet.
32. Blackmail: This one’s easy. Just find something embarassing on your friend, and screenshot it for future blackmailing.
33. Check out old promotional sites: See how sites like McDonald’s and Pepsi jumped on the Internet in the early years.
34. See how generic domain names have evolved: Take a look at the way sites like Porn.com and Milk.com have changed over the years.
35. Find embarassing old photos: Get photos that have been long taken down, and use them to torture friends and family.
36. See ads for old cars: Remember what your car looked like when it was brand new.
37. Research historical prices: See how the cost of software and more has gone up through the years.
38. Research potential employees: Before you hire someone, see if you can dig up any dirt on them with the machine.
39. Find deleted LiveJournal entries: Did someone delete a particularly juicy entry? Find it with the Wayback Machine.
40. Check out pre-”404″ pages: Satisfy your curiosity and find out what existed before a page went bad.
41. Laugh at failed business plans: Check out past business plans of corporations that failed.
42. Find the goofy website your boss built: Discover your boss’ old crappy website devoted to cats.
43. Research the past of political candidates: See what political candidates were saying a few years ago.
44. Check out wedding websites of divorced couples: See the calm before the storm, and look for signs of impending doom.
45. Research religious wackos: Find out what crazy ideas cults and other strange religious groups have published in the past.
46. Find out how long your competitor has been established: Figure out whether or not your “first on the web” claim stands up.
47. Preserve old sites for nostalgia’s sake: If you miss old communities, save your own copy of them with the machine.
48. Find old news stories: Check out breaking news coverage now that it’s not so “breaking” anymore.
49. See how big name web sites used to look amateur: Check out sites that have become large, but started out very small.
50. Check out dot-com casualties in their heyday: See what failed sites like Pets.com used to look like.

译文: 50种使用网站时光机器的有趣方法

短短的一段时间，因特网就发生了翻天覆地的变化——常常淘汰陈旧的东西，并引进一些新产品。网站档案馆网站时光倒流机器为我们提供了一个存档——我们可以搜索曾经浏览过的网页。用这一机器搜索出来的结果是非常有趣的。这里有一些建议，以向你们提供使用这一机器有趣的并对你们有所帮助的方法。
1.找老朋友：重新联系以前在网上一起闲聊的朋友。
2.为你以前买下并现已过时的产品寻找一本使用说明书：你是否曾在eBay公司买下过现已过时的产品？请从制造厂家的旧网站上找到这一产品的使用说明书。
3.看一看自己浏览过的网页记录的变化：查看网页记录变化的同时享受曾经美好的回忆。
4.创建对零碎事物的搜索：设计一个有趣的打猎游戏，用网站档案馆网站时光倒流机器收集昨天在因特网上发布的离奇零碎的东西。
5.追溯因特网的商业化能力：感叹因特网是如何成为一个巨大的营销工具的。
6.查阅自己的设置历史：如果你的域名是从别人那购的，请在你学会用它之前请看一下它是怎么回事。
7.搜索你想购买的站点：网站档案馆网站时光倒流机器是一个极好的域名搜索工具。你可以通过查阅档案获知关于经营者向你推荐他们的产品的次数和历史。
8.找到你在学校时候的旧照片：查找你母校的网上快讯，以找到你以前呆头呆脑的照片。
9.弥补损失的网站：如果你的集团公司濒临危机，你可以使用网站档案馆网站时光倒流机器找回你之前做过的一些工作。
10.回忆你以前所作的简历：找到你保存在网上的旧简历，并使自己沉浸在关于以前工作时候的回忆之中。
11.创制一个网站时间表：查找因特网或者你的历史，包括屏幕截图。
12.回顾色情网站的历史：看看在近几年间色情在网上传播的演变历史。
13.研究阴谋论：这些网站可能已被删除，但因为你拥有档案，所以你还是可以看到别人不希望被看到的东西。
14.为自己澄清名声：如果有人控告你说是你盗用了他的资料，你可以向他证明是你先把这资料放到网上的。
15.找到令人讨厌的图片文件：回忆一下网上是什么时候遍布这种无聊可笑的卡通片的？用网站档案馆网站时光倒流机器找到其中的一些，并用它们去骚扰一下其他人。
16.浏览一个被勒令暂停的网站：你是否曾经在搜索一个很酷的网站时发现它的所有者付不起他们的账单，或者服务器超载？用网站档案馆网站时光倒流机器来提高它的名气吧！
17.向小屁孩们炫耀一下你以前是多么的酷：你是否认识这样一个年轻人，他只知道聚友网是因特网上最酷的东西？那就让他们看看看你以前曾经青睐的网站吧！
18.为谁是上网最久的人下赌注：向你的朋友炫耀，在他们发现网上论坛的四个月前你已经发现它了。
19. 用文档格式制作一份电子杂志的复制文件：搜索一些旧发行物，把它们保存下来供以后阅读。
20.从不好的设计中得到启发：看一下以前的网站，以从中吸取一些教训。
21.回忆你以前的网络工作：访问你在网络上已不存在的网站，并与此同时感受物是人非的感觉。
22.对比历史价格：如你今天买了东西，你可以找出卖家当时买它时只用付多少。
23.比较对于重要事件的不同说法：通过把两个不同的版本放在一起进行对比，分析一重要事件在两个不同版本中的不同之处。
24.查询已丢失的内容；寻找你以前的简历、论文等等。
25.查询股市：看看股市在过去的十年间的涨跌。
26.逮住盗窃网页内容的盗贼：证明在这个盗贼发表这一内容之前你已发表了它，同时你可以对他们予以沉重的打击。
27.嘲笑那些从没有成为现实的预言：找到那些曾预测某天天会塌下来的预言并嘲笑它，因为在作出预测的那天已在五年前。
28.欣赏“涡轮喷气式超级摩托车”的封面：阅读新闻稿，并为一些帖子担心，这些帖子关于“涡轮喷气式超级摩托车”如何被认为是把所有的事物弄得一团糟的东西。
29.找出你沦落为搜索引擎等级的原因：查看一下曾对你有所帮助的老套的东西，并找出要恢复到原来状态所需要的东西
30.查看以前的选举活动：重新查看被淡忘的候选人以前所做的宣传。
31.感叹早些年时的因特网：在网络开创者的名单中，你可以看到一些网页，它们是因特网的重要组成部分。
32.敲诈勒索：这是一种消遣。把你朋友的一些尴尬的事情截下来，以供以后对他进行敲诈勒索。
33.查阅以前的促销网站：看看麦当劳和百事可乐在以前的几年间是如何登上因特网的。
34.看看总域名如何进化：看看在这几年间网站，如：Porn.com和Milk.com发生的变化。
35.找到一些尴尬的老照片：得到一些已拍下很久的照片，以用它们来折磨朋友和家人。
36.看看老式汽车的宣传广告：回忆你的汽车崭新时候的原貌。
37.查看历史价格：看看软件多少钱和在最近的几年间上涨了多少。
38.寻找有潜力的雇员：当你在雇用某人之前，看看你能否用这一机器找到关于他们的丑闻。
39.找到已被删除的博客网站生活杂志条目：是否有人删除了特别的条目？那就用网站档案馆网站时光倒流机器找回来吧。
40.查找前404页的内容：满足你的好奇心，并在其中一页亏损之前看看它的内容。
41.嘲笑失败的商业计划：查看以前一些企业的失败商业计划。
42.找到你老板所建立的可笑的网站：发现你老板以前蹩脚的关于猫的网站。
43.研究过去的政治候选人：看看在过去的几年间这些政治候选人都说了些什么。
44.查看关于已离婚的夫妇的结婚网站：看看暴风雨前的平静，和看看暴风雨期间的情景。
45.查查古怪的宗教信仰：找出对疯狂意识的崇拜，和其他过去被刊登的奇怪的宗教团体。
46.获悉你竞争对手的创立时间：看看你是否是第一个踏上网络的人。
47.保留旧的网站以供以后怀旧：如果你已失去了与以前组织团体的联系，请用这一机器把你自己资料的复件留下来。
48.找到旧的新闻故事：因为它已不再是爆炸性的了，所以应该核实一下爆炸性新闻的封面。
49.看看曾经小规模的大网站：查看以小规模为起点，现已跃居大规模的网站。
50.查看网络公司在它们的鼎盛时期发生的意外事故：看看不成功网站（如：宠物网）的原貌。