We are always looking for new and better ways to make the content of the UK Government Web Archive accessible. One of the most innovative and exciting developments in this area is Memento, which was developed by Los Alamos National Laboratory in the USA.
Memento aims to add a time dimension to the web, by allowing users access to a specific web resource (for example, a web page, a document, or data) now, and at some point in the past, by using web archives. It harnesses an important principle of the web: the Unique Resource Identifier (URI). URIs identify specific resources on the web and, as the web archive preserves the original URI and ‘knows’ when that resource was captured, it can ‘slice’ into the web archive to show it to the user.
The Food Standards Agency in the UK Government Web Archive, viewed using the Memento tool
To try it yourself, you need to have the FireFox browser installed, along with the MementoFox plug-in. Find out how to set Memento up to use with the UK Government Web Archive.
By using the controls of the plug-in, you can slide through time to previous versions of a website. Suggested URIs to start with are http://www.food.gov.uk/ or http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/.