Some Internet sites go way back with their content

Believe the Internet is just for new media? Then check out the Internet Archive.

Despite its name, the site isn't JUST a database of things from the Internet but a collection of digital content, including movies, music, radio shows and even text.

What originally attracted me to the site was the Wayback Machine, which offers visitors a look back at popular websites going back to the mid-'90s. Want to see a screenshot of Google back when Alta Vista was the coolest search engine on the Web? You can see how both sites have evolved over time. But while the Wayback Machine is cool, it's the rest of the site's contents that makes it more than just a novelty site.

Browsing through the site's various sections, visitors will see a wide variety of media, much of it pre-Internet, which has made the jump to digital format. There are movies, such as the original black and white version of The Night of the Living Dead; music, such as a 1968 recording of the Grateful Dead playing in Haight Ashbury; and audio files, which include such gems as "lectures of the basics of the UNIX Operating System". There is even a downloadable version of the infamous 1938 radio broadcast of War of the Worlds.

However, these titles just skim the surface. The site hosts almost 140,000 video files and well over a million text files.

The Internet Archive is certainly a site that will appeal to media fans, but it certainly isn't the place to go if you're looking for the latest music videos. Instead the site, which is run as a not-for-profit corporation, is meant as an Internet library. The site also has numerous links to other libraries around the world, including the US Library of Congress and the New Library of Alexandria in Egypt, which mirrors the Wayback Machine.

The site also has really simply syndication (RSS) feeds and message boards.

Name: Internet ArchiveURL: www.archive.orgWhat it is:
What it is: A database of digital content
Easy of use: simple
Cost: free