I've been on the net since about 1994. I signed up with Hotmail back before Microsoft owned it. I watched the OJ Simpson trial unfold on the other side the the globe through the net.
A lot has changed since then, but it's nice to know you can always jump back to "that world" of a decade and a half ago.
Check out the WaybackMachine. It is an Internet archive.
http://www.archive.org/web/web.php
I had an IT manager say to me once "I don't see the point. What would you ever use it for?"
I always found that comical because I immediately saw so many opportunities. Firstly - anyone who has ever done research on the net has found dead links. So this tool can bring back those dead links. Then there are the changes to sites, where sites change the information they are showing, taking away the very information you are after. I had a link for a web site that had cocktails on it. It turns out the company was purchased and the new company removed that information from the site. I jumped onto the waybackmachine and hey-presto I got the info I was after.
I also like the idea of software and web site archeology - although with at most 2 decades of use, I don't think it would exactly be a look into the distant past. Even so, it is interesting to see famous web sites grow and change - incorporating new technologies and layouts.
What use is it? It's a powerful information tool and well worth bookmarking - even if you only use it once in a blue moon.
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