searching for the past - could it be the future of search?

I'm sad to see that google's 2001 archive has been taken down.

I found important things in that archive - via what became my personal habit of cross searching in both googles.

In particular, a couple of interviews of a friend who recently passed away.

Interviews, I might add, that were nowhere to be found in the current, all too vast google.

Because - believe me, I tried.

It was with a mixture of dread and incredulousness (realizing the preciousness of these particular interviews) that I wanted nothing more than to be wrong.

I wanted to find the same interviews in the current google.

I really wanted to.

But, no. Even while employing the advanced feature, these things were nowhere to be found.

I only hope that by bookmarking these sites - I can still access them. I didn't print anything out right away.

Now with the archive down, I'm afraid that that window might be closed.

Silly me, I didn't realize that the archive was finite.

Because it seemed plain that such an archive would be a permanent. It added a strange new layer to search.

I thought google was testing something out.

As nothing more than a snapshot of history - it was unique. That alone. But then you add the fact that it was interactive.

Not that everything was available. But at least half the pages I tried to access were.

Shouldn't search be as multifaceted as possible?

Even if the 2001 archive was only a self generated history (or, maybe, specifically because it was a self generated history) it added something valuable to search.

And isn't that what google has been talking about forever: the future of search?

Google? Are you out there?

-just sayin'