Pretty much any book you want to read for free, you can borrow from them. I use it very frequently to grab sections of some book I'm interested in or want to cite but don't have a physical copy of.

They also have awesome documentaries. The Mine Wars is, I think, one I saw not that long ago which was pretty sweet.

I do not donate to them for using all this awesome stuff, even though I probably should.

I use it to find old software and games for my retro PC projects, currently working on a Windows XP gaming machine and maybe a DOS machine afterwards.

Without the Internet Archive it would have been a lot harder to find software.

Was searching for a 3d model to print some months ago.

I spotted one after a while but the download available was only for an updated version, and needed the old version.

Managed to pull off the old download link from the archive and get the file. I was pretty stoked that it worked.

I use the Wayback machine sometimes.

Norm MacDonald’s old youtube podcast is on there, while it’s hard to find anywhere else (they took it down from youtube when he got his Netflix show).

I’ve found public domain pictures on there, and I’ve spent time browsing very old music.

I went down a rabbithole of comparing evolving definitions of words by reading through generations of dictionaries. That would be hard to do without the IA. As well as comparing versions of books that I was considering buying.

through time

Dude, you’re saying this as though the internet has been around for millennia. And as if you’ve never been to / heard of a library.

I’ve downloaded a ton of music videos to create my own self-hosted MTV station. I’ve downloaded music and books. I’ve used it to view non-paywalled (NYT) articles shared on Lemmy. I live in Philadelphia so I’ve used it to look up the earliest version of the “yellow pages” or “white pages” from the 1800s. I’ve searched for the videos they used to show us in elementary school on 16mm - stuff about the expansion of the USA, the national parks, history of my state or city, etc. I’ve used it to look up tv commercials from the 1980s for a bit of nostalgia and older tv shows that people have uploaded from their personal VHS collection. Some people just upload personal stuff that’s entirely mundane but voyeuristically interesting. And I’m certain I haven’t even scratched the surface of what’s on there.

@jeena Yep, I stumble upon dead links all the time, and if it's something that seems interesting I try to look it up thru internet archive

(And if it's a website that existed for a long time, it usually shows up)

Wayback Machine, all the time. Very useful if a reference link on Wikipedia is dead (why do websites just remove articles like that? It drives me nuts). Unfortunately it doesn’t handle JavaScript very well, rendering some functions of websites unusable, or breaking images. I particularly remember browsing the website for Al Jazeera Children’s Channel (which is jcctv.net by the way), they had a theme switcher which unfortunately uses JS, so… I’m stuck with the blue underwater theme for some reason. And yes, Al Jazeera did do lots of non-news related stuff at one point.

The Internet Archive can be useful as well if you’re looking for a very niche thing that isn’t really available elsewhere. I usually use it for software, but at one point I tried searching it for an archive of Club Penguin’s game files. They also have lots of public domain stuff if you’re interested in that (friendly reminder: Steamboat Willie is part of it now).

I do - there are old sites that have gone off line that I search the Way Back Machine to look at. There are also lots of archived files available that I’ve used more than once (Amiga files for example, Usenet archives and even old magazines).

It’s not really a day-to-day tool for everyone, but when you need it it’s irreplaceable.

I use it all the time for books and audiobooks.

But I must say, that I read A LOT and don’t want to always read the new and popular stuff. Especially if you leave mainstream and the big markets (US, UK and Europe) you can find a lot of great books by authors from smaller countries that are not available otherwise. Often the translations are out of print and never been available as ebook and the scanned and digitised version by the Internet Archive is the only one I can find.

Ever tried to read the Chinese classic epos “Journey to the west” in full (not just the monkey King story)? It’s in the archive. Or have you heard of one of Surinames most important writers Cynthia McLeod or read the poetry collection of Guyanese writer Grace Nichols? Or a translation of Syrias most important Poet Adunis? The Internet Archive has it all. You just have to look for it.

It also has the free domain classics from several other projects all in one place. And not to forget old movies and television. I recently watched “9 to 5” the feminist classic with Dolly Parton, Jane Fonda and Lilly Tomlin there recently because no other streaming service had it.

Of course if you are only into blockbusters and bestsellers, the Internet Archive can’t help you there.

Yes often. I regularly work on fixing up old computers and electronics, often Archive is the place to go for old manuals and schematics. Old firmware and software is also on there.

It’s so much better for people to put stuff on the Archive instead of in a random forum post somewhere with a broken download link.

All the time. For websites that are no longer online, it’s invaluable, what’s the alternative?

Things which happened get forgotten because they’re deleted. If something like Internet Archive exists that’s no longer a problem.

I use it quite often. I can still download some books from The Trove (RIP), it also has all sorts of abandonware and console rom collections. It also has a decent collection of gaming magazines and CDs that would come bundled with them. There’s also an incredible variety of books in there, and older programming books always catch my attention.

I’ve also watched the 1930 All Quiet on the Western Front film there. It’s the kind of thing that pirate sites and streaming services don’t bother with, because there’s no demand.

Bypassing paywalled articles.

There’s old movies there, too.

A long time ago I was repairing my dad’s camera, I found an article describing the exact fault & a link to how to fix it, but the link was dead.

Used the wayback machine to find a text only copy of the fix (no pictures) which was enough.

Was immensely proud that someone had had the idea to invent the IA & have been recommending it ever since.