Web 'Wayback machine' switched on

An archive of 10 billion Web pages, dating back to 1996, has been launched at web.archive.org.

"We created the archive in 1996 because we felt it was critical to preserve a permanent record of this historically significant new medium for the public," said founder Brewster Kahle. The project, developed in conjunction with the Library of Congress and the Smithsonian Institution, made its official debut Wednesday night at the University of California at Berkeley. It will assist researchers and people "who just want to see how the media and our culture marked important historical events," said Paul Grabowicz, an assistant dean at the university.