What happens when the internet disappears?Many valuable websites and articles are disappearing, affecting cultural research and continuity.A Pew Research study highlights that 38% of web pages from 2013 are no longer accessible.
Make It Ephemeral: Software Should Decay and Lose DataSoftware should be designed to forget outdated data for better user experiences.Deliberate forgetting in software allows for more effective management of information.Current software often behaves like a digital dumping ground, lacking mechanisms for data decay.
The Wayback Machine and the quest to archive the internetLarge portions of the web are vanishing, showcasing a phenomenon known as 'digital decay' or linkrot.The Internet Archive's Wayback Machine serves as a crucial tool in preserving historical snapshots of the web.
Pew finds a quarter of web pages vanish in the last decadeDigital content decay is prevalent, with a significant percentage of web pages, news articles, and social media posts becoming inaccessible over time.
38% of decade old webpages suffer from digital decay38% of web pages from 2013 are no longer available due to digital decay.