Google Search adds links to archived webpages from Internet Archive's Wayback Machine

[harlan4096]

Internet Archive has announced that it has entered a partnership with Google to display links to archived versions of webpages in Google Search. This will help users see what a webpage's contents looked like in the past.

You may recall that the search giant removed Google Cached links from search results in February this year. That was a rather strange decision, and was criticized by many users. However, at that time, Google's Public Liaison for Search, Danny Sullivan, had hinted that Google could add support for links from the Internet Archive. That is exactly what has happened now, and it should be a welcome change for everyone.

Here are a few reasons why an archive function is useful:

• Sometimes websites are deleted, and fans of the sites may want to visit the old pages, to see what it looked like, or even to find information that is not available elsewhere.
  
• Sometimes websites are forced to pull down webpages due to differences with a company, legal and/or political reasons.
  
• We have also seen shady examples of privacy policies being changed silently. This is why I think archived copies of webpages can be excellent for preservation of data, and knowledge.
  

That said, the Internet Archive has confirmed that it will respect the decision of rights holders who opt out of having their site archived. This also applies to webpages that may violate content policies. So, in such cases, the links to archived webpages will not be available.

How does the feature work?

According to the official announcement, users who perform a search on Google will need to access a specific section of the result, under which the archived links are available.

I tried it in multiple browsers, but I don't see the option for the archived links yet. That means the feature is being rolling out. But I'll highlight the steps here.
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[jasonX]

That's too bad as I rely on that way back machine from timw to time. Thanks for the update;