Wayback Machine Web Browser Extension

In cooperation with Google Summer of Code, The Internet Archive presents The Official Wayback Machine Extension. With the power of the Wayback Machine, we let you go back in time to see how a URL has changed and evolved through the history of the Web!

Features

• Save Page Now - Instantly save the page you are currently viewing in the Wayback Machine. Turn on Auto Save Page in settings to save pages that have not previously been saved, or Auto Save Bookmarks to save when bookmarking a page. Works while logged out, or log in for additional options.
• Oldest, Newest & Overview - View the first version of a page or the most recently saved in the Wayback Machine. Or view a calendar overview of all archived pages. Can also use by right-clicking over a page or link.
• Wayback Machine Count - Display a count of snapshots of the current page stored in the Wayback Machine over the toolbar icon, and the date of last save in the popup.
• 404 Not Found - When an error occurs, automatically check if an archived copy is available. Checks against 4xx & 5xx HTTP error codes.
• Contextual Notices - Check for contextual information from fact checking organizations and origin websites.
• Relevant Resources - View research papers and books while visiting Wikipedia, archived digitized books while visiting Amazon Books, and recommended TV News Clips while visiting news websites.
• URLs & Collections - Show a list of URLs captured under the current website, and what collections they are saved under.
• Site Map & Word Cloud - Present a sunburst diagram for the domain you are currently viewing, or create a Word Cloud from the link’s anchor text of the page you are on.
• Annotations - Provide a list of annotations for the current web page and domain, provided by Hypothes.is.
• My Web Archive - Save URLs to your public archive page on the Internet Archive.
• Tweets & Share Links - Search Twitter for information regarding your current page, or share archived links on social media.

Installing the Extension

Follow the link below to install the latest deployed version for your web browser.

Chrome Edge Firefox Safari

Provide Feedback

Your feedback helps us improve our web extension and is much appreciated!

If you have a GitHub account, please check the list of existing issues (bugs are tagged red), then create a New issue to file a Bug report or Feature request. We recommend that you test against the Latest Build from Source (if able to) to see that any bugs discovered haven’t already been fixed.

If you do not have an account, please send us an email to info@archive.org to report any bugs or feature requests. Please include the version of the web extension you are using (which you can find on the extension’s About page) and what browser + version, and any other relevent info such as the website URL where the error occurs.

Installing the Latest Build from Source

First tap on the Code button, Download ZIP, unzip the file in a location where you can find on your computer, then follow the steps below for your browser.

Chrome

1. Open Chrome and navigate to chrome://extensions in your browser. You can also access this page by clicking on the 3 vertical dots menu on the top-right, hovering over More Tools, then selecting Extensions.
2. Turn on the switch next to Developer mode.
3. Click the Load unpacked button and select the wayback-machine-webextension/webextension directory that contains this code.
4. Click on the Extensions puzzle-like icon in the toolbar.
5. Now click on the Pin icon next to Wayback Machine to pin it.
6. Click on the newly added icon.
7. Read the terms, then Accept and Enable. Click on the icon again to use the extension.

See What are extensions? for more information on Chrome extensions.

Edge

1. Open Edge and navigate to edge://extensions in your browser. You can also access this page by clicking on the 3 horizontal dots menu on the top-right, then clicking Extensions.
2. Turn on the switch next to Developer mode.
3. Click the Load unpacked button and select the wayback-machine-webextension/webextension directory that contains this code.
4. Click on the newly added icon in the toolbar.
5. Read the terms, then Accept and Enable. Click on the icon again to use the extension.

Firefox

1. Open Firefox and navigate to about:debugging in the browser. You can also access this page by clicking on the hamburger menu on the top-right, select Add-ons, then the Gear Tools button on the top-right, then Debug Add-ons.
2. Click This Firefox on the left.
3. Click Load Temporary Add-on...
4. Open the wayback-machine-webextension/webextension directory and select any file.
5. Click on the newly added icon in the toolbar.
6. Read the terms, then Accept and Enable. Click on the icon again to use the extension.

See Temporary installation in Firefox for more information on Firefox extensions.

Safari 14+

This will require Xcode to compile from source.

1. Open Safari.

• If Develop menu is hidden, go to Preferences > Advanced > check "Show Develop menu in menu bar".
• Then Develop menu > Allow Unsigned Extensions (enter password).

1. Open the project file safari/Wayback Machine.xcodeproj in Xcode. Click Play to run.
2. Follow directions in splash window:

• Safari menu > Preferences > Extensions tab.
• Check to activate Wayback Machine.
• Select "Always Allow on Every Website..." button and confirm.

1. Click on the newly added icon in the toolbar.
2. Read the terms, then Accept and Enable. Click on the icon again to use the extension.

Contributing Code

Thank you for your interest in contributing to this Open Source project! We welcome code contributions. Please read the following which should help you get started.

• Contribution Guide
• Style Guide
• Testing Guide

Renamed Repo

If you previously used the command line to clone this repo, note that it has been renamed. To update your local copy, run one of the following commands from the repo’s directory.

SSH: git remote set-url origin git@github.com:internetarchive/wayback-machine-webextension.git

HTTPS: git remote set-url origin https://github.com/internetarchive/wayback-machine-webextension.git

Credits

By order of lines contributed (with years):

• Carl Gorringe @cgorringe (2020-22)
• Anish Kumar Sarangi @anishsarangi (2018-22)
• Abhishek Das @abhidas17695 (2017-18)
• Vangelis Banos @vbanos (2017-19)
• Max Reinisch @MaxReinisch (2018-19)
• Pushkit Kapoor @tikhsuP (2020)
• Tanweer Anwar @tanweer919 (2019)
• Zerichen @Zerichen (2019)
• Pranshu Kharkwal @pranshukharkwal (2020)
• Chirag Vashist @SerChirag (2017)
• Kumar Yogesh @kumarjyogesh (2017)
• Richard Caceres @rchrd2 (2017)
• Shubham Rath @sr6033 (2019)
• Vishnu Raghavan @VishnuRaghavan (2022)
• Kerry Rodden @kerryrodden
• Karim Ratib @infojunkie (2021-22) - Manager
• Mark Graham @markjgraham - Director

License

Copyright © 2017-2021 Internet Archive. All rights reserved.

Licensed under the terms of the GNU Affero General Public License version 3 (AGPLv3).