The Internet Archive and the Wayback Machine that lives within it sound like something retrieved from the mind after watching Back to the Future late one night, but they were always meant to be more like the Library of Alexandria. It can’t quite be said that they have stood the test of time yet, but they have preserved decades of history in internet years, which can seem like millennia.
Both are celebrating anniversaries on Oct. 21. Like any such occasion, it’s a time of not just celebration but reflection, with an undercurrent of trepidation about what lies ahead. The Internet Archive turns 25 and its component the Wayback Machine will be 20. Both were founded by computer scientist Brewster Kahle. The Internet Archive was launched as a repository of free books, movies, software, music, websites, and more, all scanned in by employees around the world. The Wayback Machine takes snapshots of websites, archiving them at moments of time throughout the years.
PCMag is coming up on its own anniversary next year (we’ll be 40, thanks), so we thought this would be a good time to look back on some of our own history using the Internet Archive and the Wayback Machine. Much like these repositories of knowledge, PCMag started in print and moved on to the web. We were originally PC Magazine, a monthly print magazine that put out its first issue in 1982 and ceased publishing in 2009. And on the web, we’re PCMag, which started with a few freely available stories on the internet in 1994 and is now a resource for thousands of reliable reviews, the home of Fastest Mobile Networks, and a place to turn to for daily tech news and stories that delve further into the big issues of the industry. In short, we’re so much more than PCs. But the Internet Archive and the Wayback Machine are not going to let us forget our roots, and we wouldn’t want to.
Here are some key highlights from the collection we found online below. And when you're done reading, be sure to let us know in the comments what cool things you found in the archive as well (about anything, not just us).
The charter issue can be found in full on the Internet Archive. Wooden artists’ manikins clamber over the first IBM PC on the cover. In the first editor’s letter, David Bunnell wrote, “We strongly sense that the users of the IBM Personal Computer will demand quality end-user publications filled with useful, well-written information. It is our destiny to be the first such publication and our intention to always be the best.”
Flip a few pages and there’s an interview with Bill Gates. A few more and you’ll read about The Freedom Network, a company that set out to send electronic messages. And finally, there is the original plan and ethos behind our reviews.
It seems like we might have located the beginning of us getting asked the question: “Why are you covering Apple if there’s PC in your name?” with a cover from 1984 (of course) on IBM vs. Apple. The issue was a package of stories about the rivalry and in the table of contents the blurb for one says: “Apple’s rags-to-riches story may be facing an unhappy ending.” Moving on.
Speaking of rivalries, since Apple does both software and hardware, the company made some enemies over at Microsoft too. But back in 1995, it had barely taken a bite of the OS market because Windows 95 was out in beta and would soon dominate. (Can’t you hear “Start Me Up” by the Rolling Stones right now?”) It was also the height of AOL shipping discs to everyone’s homes. PC Magazine wasn’t left out of either; it included a CD-ROM with an Interactive Companion to Windows 95 with each issue. A little reminder from the front: To start, RUN.ME.EXE.
The first appearance of PCMag on the Wayback Machine is on Dec. 19, 1996. We were highlighting our Best of the Year issue. Of course, we had a holiday gift guide (just like now). If you received the Microsoft SideWinder Game Pad for a present that year, you’re welcome.
In 1999, we were naturally worried about Y2K. On the Wayback Machine, we had a Y2K countdown with 10 things you can do right now to prepare for the new millennium.
Gmail made its debut in 2004. From our story on it, “Google chose April Fool's Day to announce that it is offering a free Web e-mail service, Gmail, which should compete with Microsoft's market-leading Hotmail service.” Were we ever so young?
Three years later, the iPhone was introduced. Sascha Segan, our lead mobile analyst then and now, called it “Apple’s revolution for the few” because of its price and its being tied to a Cingular contract. “That will prevent Apple from dominating the smart phone market the way they have the MP3 player market.” Little did we know that a revolution really was on the way.
