WaybackMachine

web.archive.org unofficial WaybackMachine extension

What is WaybackMachine?

"WaybackMachine" is an unofficial Chrome extension enabling quick access to web.archive.org's internet archive - the Wayback Machine. With just a click, users can view the chosen website at any specified historical point. If the site wasn't crawled in the specified year or month, the extension redirects to the closest available version in a new tab, making web history exploration effortless.

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Extension stats

By: Mohammad Hussein

View on Chrome Web Store

Users: 4,000+

Rating: 3.42 (24)

Version: 1.1 (Last updated: 2016-03-18)

Creation date: 2016-03-18

Risk impact: Moderate risk impact

Risk likelihood: Low risk likelihood

Manifest version: 2

Permissions:

tabs

Size: 64.78K

Ranking

# 16023 ▼ 48

Other rankings

#2923 in Just for Fun ▲ 2 #67 in machine keyword 23 ▲ 2 #158 in month keyword 9 ▼ 3

Other platforms

Not available on Firefox

Not available on Edge

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Extension summary

Analyze keywords

With a click of a mouse, the extension uses web.archive.org's internet archiving Wayback Machine to view the current website you're on in the year and month you specify.

If the website you're viewing wasn't crawled by the machine at the specified month or year, it takes you to the nearest crawled version and opens it in a new tab.

User reviews

These summaries are automatically generated weekly using AI based on recent user reviews. Chrome Web Store does not verify user reviews, so some user reviews may be inaccurate, spammy, or outdated.

Pros

Great extension for accessing archived pages.
Modifiable settings allow customization for maximum usability.
Handy tool for viewing past web pages.
Provides basic functionality for returning to the past.

Cons

Limited to viewing main domain, not specific pages.
Discards part of the URL, losing context.
Doesn't work reliably; sometimes doesn't respond.
Considered too complicated by some users.

Most mentioned

Can only go to 2006.
Loses part of URL.
Doesn't show the exact page, only the main domain.
Doesn't work very well.

Recent reviews

It can only go to 2006, I want it to go back to more early times like 2021.

Elijah, 2023-05-26

Great extension. You can modify it by editing popup.html and changing the form to include the latest years and as far back as you want. You can also modify line 10 in the popup.js to use "currentURL" instead of trimURL(currentURL) so that it doesn't trim your URL to the domain. But he did this because obscure URLs of a site might not be in the WayBackMachine. So this gives you the ability to at least see if something is available before digging deeper.