May 17, 2021 23:00:00

'Vandal' extension review that allows you to easily see the past of the page you are viewing for free

While browsing the site, many people have thought, 'I'm curious about the past pages of this site, but it's a bit of a hassle to access

the Internet Archive and search on the Wayback Machine.' The free installable extension for Chrome and Firefox, Vandal, makes it easy to view snapshots collected by Wayback Machine.

Vandal | Navigator for Web Archive
https://vegetableman.github.io/vandal/

When you access the above URL, it will be displayed as follows. Vandal is available in Chrome and Firefox versions, but this time click 'ADD TO CHROME' to install it in Chrome.

Then click 'Add to Chrome'.

Click Add Extension.

When the installation is complete, the following will be displayed.

If the icon does not appear on the toolbar, click the extension button in the shape of a puzzle piece and then click Vandal to do so.

I will use it immediately. This time, I am using the

news site Japan Times , which is also used as an example on the official Vandal website. If you click the Vandal icon while browsing the site, the Vandal toolbar will be displayed at the top of the site, so click the button in the red frame.

Then, the calendar is displayed, so let's try selecting the snapshot of May 1, 2021.

As a result, the top page of The Japan Times on May 1, 2021 was displayed.

Click Graph to switch to a graph showing how often the Wayback Machine took snapshots by year. As a test, if you select a snapshot collected on May 17, 2011, 10 years before the article was created ...

The top page of The Japan Times, whose page width is quite different from 2021, was displayed.

Vandal also has a 'Navigation History' function that shows the display history ...

'Resource Drawer' function that displays the time difference of the time stamp of the page element

There is also a 'Historical View' feature that allows you to view the transition of the page layout by arranging the thumbnails of the snapshots taken each year.

If you click the heart symbol on the right end of the toolbar ...

The donation page to the Internet Archive is displayed.

According to the author, Vegetableman , the name Vandal is named after Vandal Savage , the immortal villain in the American comic series Justice League.