Time travel, as a whole, does not exist. But time travel that lets you visit porn sites from the past is here now, as is the ability to visit all kinds of web sites from years gone by – including your own.

This mind-boggling ability comes to you for free courtesy of The Wayback Machine at archive.org. Also known as the “Internet Archive,” The Wayback Machine is a nonprofit online archive of web site snapshots. It is named for Mr. Peabody’s Wayback Machine in The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle.

“We began in 1996 by archiving the Internet itself, a medium that was just beginning to grow in use,” explains Archives.org. “Like newspapers, the content published on the web was ephemeral – but unlike newspapers, no one was saving it. Today we have 20+ years of web history accessible through the Wayback Machine and we work with 625+ library and other partners through our Archive-It program to identify important web pages.”

How It Works

The Wayback Machine’s collection is compiled through its own automated searches across the web, plus voluntary uploads by interested parties. The ‘snapshots’ are then stored in The WayBack Machine’s database, for access by future users.

The system isn’t perfect; quite often only pieces of web sites have been captured, and the time between can stretch for weeks or more. Broken links to other pages/media can also be an issue.

Still, for someone wanting to see the evolution of a web site over time – or see their own sites from long, long ago – The Wayback Machine is a very cool tool.

How To Use The Wayback Machine

The Wayback Machine is very simple to use. You just type in the URL of the web site you want to travel to. The Wayback Machine then creates a retrieval page covering the calendar, allowing you to click on highlighted dates when a site snapshot was saved.

For instance, big breasted porn star Vicky Vette has had a solid web presence since 2003, at least according to The Wayback Machine. But the first www.vickyathome.com it captured on April 3rd of that year is far more basic than the professional version online today (which only makes sense).

Meanwhile, the Vivid.com website captured on April; 14, 1997 appears to have belonged to a web development company. But ‘time jump’ to June 6, 2002 and you’ll find the site of the renowned adult video company as it appeared 18 years ago.

Finally, 1998 YNOT.com’s web site back in July 1, 1998 (under different ownership) was a purveyor of… free animated greeting cards. In fact, it was the “Home of the Largest Selection of Animated Greeting Cards on the Web”, according to the YNOT.com home page 22 years ago.

Apparently, that didn’t pan out. Good thing we switched to sex!

These are just a handful of the web sites from the past that you can visit using The Wayback Machine, of course. Try typing in your own web address; chances are it’s there.