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Finding old versions of any site

Mickey Mellen
2 min readMay 10, 2021

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From time to time, it can be useful (or even just fun) to find an old version of a website. Perhaps you need to grab some content from an old version of your site, or maybe you want to see how ESPN looked 15 years ago.

If that’s what you need, there are a few great tools to help you do that.

Google Cache

This only works for short-term items, but is quick and easy. When you perform a Google search, you can click the three dots next to any item in the results, then click “Cached” in the box that pops up, as shown here:

This will show you the version of the site on Google’s servers, likely from the past few days.

Wayback Machine

To go back further, the “Wayback Machine” at archive.org is the way to ride. Put any website address in there, and they’ll show you versions they saved that go back decades. The coverage can be spotty, and some images may be broken, but it’s a fan way to take a look back. For example, here is a screenshot of the GreenMellen website from way back in 2010:

The Library of Congress

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Mickey Mellen
Mickey Mellen

Written by Mickey Mellen

I’m a cofounder of @GreenMellen, and I’m into WordPress, blogging and seo. Love my two girls, gadgets, Google Earth, and I try to run when I can.

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