Journey to the past: proposal of a framework for past web browser

Abstract

While the Internet community recognized early on the need to store and preserve past content of the Web for future use, the tools developed so far for retrieving information from Web archives are still difficult to use and far less efficient than those developed for the "live Web." We expect that future information retrieval systems will utilize both the "live" and "past Web" and have thus developed a general framework for a past Web browser. A browser built using this framework would be a client-side system that downloads, in real time, past page versions from Web archives for their customized presentation. It would use passive browsing, change detection and change animation to provide a smooth and satisfactory browsing experience. We propose a meta-archive approach for increasing the coverage of past Web pages and for providing a unified interface to the past Web. Finally, we introduce query-based and localized approaches for filtered browsing that enhance and speed up browsing and information retrieval from Web archives.