Archiving the Web
Internet history is one of those avenues of study that slips under the radar. This is interesting to pause and consider. The Internet and subsequent web have become so deeply entrenched in our daily experience that I think we forget that what we are making and using lives on beyond the present moment. The history of the web points to the idea that the language through which all of these seemingly mindless exchanges we have with our machines was created to share information.
The web is a part of almost every function of daily life. I think one would be hard pressed to find an individual in today’s society who has not digitized at least one function of his life. Whether this be utilizing online bill paying services or buying groceries, the web has managed to fulfill nearly every need man has. Online storefronts have replaced the brick and mortar in some respects. From a marketing standpoint, this is not actually the case, but, regardless, this is the perception. Lev Manovich’s introduction to the text Software Takes Command brings up an interesting point about the history of these seemingly benign functions. Manovich notes that software’s ubiquity cements its position in common culture. The thought of the best media is the one that mediates the least can be attributed partly to this introduction and partly to Einstein’s nearly similar summation, and is one that applies here. The history of the web is slippery and full of craters simply because it is has become ubiquitous and does not mediate in the user’s life.
This, yes, is the goal of any software or web design. But then, the question still remains, whether or not any of this qualifies as useful historical data. It is my opinion that moving forward a redefinition of the notion of history is necessary. History, for many in the digital age lives in a musky library, hidden somewhere in the pages of a water damaged and yellowed book. This is not the web. The web is constant. It is what man is not. The knowledge seems infinite and ephemeral. I think most forget their Google searches and would forget them entirely if they were not stored within the software (which speaks volumes of how entirely dependent we have become).
The matter of actually cataloging all of the pages seems tolling, especially to those who rely on the web for speed. Gitlemen and Pingree, in their introduction to the text, What’s New About New Media?, bring up an interesting point about the place of intellectual endeavors in the age of new media. This is that within the new society created by the new media (including software) we have changed the way we approach other areas of our lives. I do not believe history to be removed from this category. As new media pushes us to alter, whether consciously or not, the ways in which we approach tasks, we must ensure that we keep up with it. Which is also sort of on the lines of Douglas Rushkoff’s Program or Be Programmed.
The Internet Archive’s “Wayback Machine” is one of the few places where we have begun to catalog our web history. Here, there are various sites which users have saved to the site. The collection that the Archive holds currently has many holes. They attribute this largely to the privacy or password encryptions some sites have, which also brings into question the future of website documentation and its limitations. I decided to look up the evolution of Amazon’s website. The Archive has record of the site from 1998 to 2016. There were about 40,000 entries catalogued in totality. It was odd. I figured that the site would look dramatically different than it does today. However, it does not look that different. Structurally, the site is far more skeletal than it is. The products have changed, too. Amazon has certainly evolved into more of an online department store rather than its original function as an online bookstore.
I have included some of the screenshots I took to show its evolution. I have four, each representing what I would consider to be a meaningful shift in new media.
The above is what Amazon looked like in October 1998. There is clearly an expansion of the merchandise selection from just books to a “Halloween Headquarters”. A book, however remains the first item that a user would see when navigating the site. The “Free E-Card” section to the left hand side of the screen made me laugh a little to myself remembering what a fad the e-card was and how it has vastly subsided.
The next is from February 2000. The site looks structurally much the same, with a much more simplified version of the options on the side.
The electronics seem to be pushed more to the forefront, with book playing a bit less of a focused role. The icon in the front and center of the page advertising toys, books, and music with the title “Sister Act” and the novel Bridget Jones beneath reminds me of my experience playing around with Microsoft Paint as a child which made me smile. There is something nostalgic about the highly simplistic web design for the sake of being web design aesthetic. Other than this, it was funny to see Eyes Wide Shut advertised on the front page, being that it has since slipped into cult obscurity.
For the next, I chose to jump ahead a few years to 2006. By this time, the web was certainly more of a fixture in daily life, so I assumed that the site would reflect this. I was correct.
The departments expanded from just books, movies, electronics, software, toys, home improvement, and auctions to include apparel. The page in 2006 reflects more of what Amazon is today. What I began to also be interested in my looking into Amazon’s web history is the evolution of the right side of the page. It began with a list of Amazon’s “Top 100 Books” and a recommended music section evolved by 2006 to include advertisements for products sold on Amazon. I think this speaks volumes to the ways in which our view and use of media has changed. Which brings me to the next snapshot…
…2011. 2011 was nothing if not a surprise in terms of the advertising. The right side of the site was completely free. The categories look very similar to the 2006 page. This time the focus is largely on Amazon’s Kindle. This takes the main focus of the front page. This is also a result in the shift in new media and usage, for the front page of a site to become a self-advertisement is a major change. Also, the idea that Amazon ventured into the hardware market is interesting to note. The expansion is reflective of the need for software companies to branch out and attempt other markets to maintain customers in the midst of great competition.
To conclude the view into Amazon’s web history, I will end with what Amazon’s site looks like today (or as of early February 2016).
The layout of the site has completely changed. The menu is more user-friendly, with a more clearly defined search feature. The categories are simple and bolded without the clutter of sub categories. This is a response, likely, to the ways in which we use the web have changed. It is all about convenience and Amazon’s success is largely couched in its ability to be a “walled garden” of products for the user. You are free to search, but only within Amazon’s perimeters. The saved search history is definitive of the current web climate also. This is what Van Dijk would have referred to as success in the Registration function of new media. The center (Amazon) determines the information given and offers the user initiative to do with it what he may desire. The issue of privacy may be at play here, but that is a completely separate animal.
Without services like Internet Archive, the traces of websites may disappear. Whether this matters at all will depend upon a potential redefinition of what history may be and what we may have to do to alter the way we collect it in this age of new media.
