Web Archives

A browser extension to view archived and cached versions of a website on multiple archiving sites.

URL

Github | Chrome | Firefox | Edge | Opera | Safari

Description

Web Archives is a browser extension that allows you to view archived and cached versions of web pages on archiving sites such as the Wayback Machine and archive.today.

By integrating multiple services into one interface, the extension can help save time and enhance efficiency during online investigations.

Example use case: You are investigating a website that frequently updates its content or might remove sensitive pages. Web Archives enables you to quickly check archived versions from different platforms to track changes or retrieve deleted content.

How to use

You can start searches directly from the context menu or the browser toolbar.

Fetch the archives of a current page from the extension menu

Open the extension menu and select the desired engine. This will open a new tab with the results.

You can also fetch on all engines simultaneously

Fetch the archives for a link using the context menu

If your target is a link available in the current page, you can right-click on the link, select "Web Archives" context menu and then select the desired engine.

You can use Web Archives' context menu on a link

Fetch the archive of a given URL from the clipboard

From the extension menu, select the URL Mode and then copy-paste the target URL.

The URL Mode allows you to fetch for a URL without opening it, that makes you check a resource passively, without interacting with the target.

Change behavior to open new tabs in the background

By default, Web Archives will open the results in a new tab and switch focus to it. If you prefer to open the tab in the background and view the results later, you can adjust this behavior in Options > Miscellaneous > Open new tabs in the background.

Now tabs will open in the background and you can switch focus to it later.

You can also choose the desired engines and re-order them in the Options.

Cost

The tool is free and open source.

Level of difficulty

Requirements

  • A supported browser. These are Chrome, Firefox, Edge, Opera and Safari.

  • Most engines need Javascript to be enabled.

Limitations

  • The tool relies on the availability of the linked archiving services.

  • Note that there's is no guarantee that an archived version of a page will be found, as it depends on whether the archiving service has captured the content at the time of your request.

Ethical Considerations

Make sure you have the right to use the selected search engines in your location.

Tool provider

Armin Sebastian (@dessant on GitHub) is an EU based developer specializing in open source browser extensions.

Advertising Trackers

The tool itself does not use tracking cookies but the archving sites/search engines may use them. Be mindful of the their privacy policies.

Page maintainer

Bellingcat Volunteer Team

Last updated

Was this helpful?