As day one of Internet Week New York’s Digital Archaeology exhibition, which celebrates the golden age of the web, draws to a close it’s fair to say that the 28 sites have provoked a lot of contemplation of what the future holds for web design amongst attendees.

Visitors showed their appreciation for the sites, virtually of course, by “liking” their favourites via QR codes, which link to an online leaderboard. The surprise leader with the most Likes after Day one was Borders’ Gift Mixer 3000.

Borders’ gift Mixer 3000, a flash-based site built in 2004, emulates the look and functionality of a music mixer but aids consumers in finding the perfect gift. After switching the dial to either “Kid” or “Adult,” shoppers slide equaliser buttons on the screen to indicate how romantic, adventurous, imaginative, brainy, and funny the person they’re buying for is, and the Gift Mixer responds with suggestions for books, music, and movies.

Gift Mixer was well ahead of its time; using artificial intelligence to suggest gifts to be purchased online in what was historically a “bricks and mortar” environment. This is a feature we take for granted now when making any type of search or purchase on an ecommerce site, however Gift Mixer arrived on the scene years before Amazon acquired numerous book and media outlets and began its stranglehold on online retail.

Dan LaCivita of Firstborn discussing the design and build of the Gift Mixer.

The afternoon was highlighted by a presentation by Abbie Grotke, Web Archiving Team Lead from the Library of Congress, along with the exhibition’s curator and Story Worldwide’s Jim Boulton on the IWNY Content Stage.

Abbie and Jim highlighted how crucial it is that we preserve our digital past, yet the vastness of the web (even just in the U.S.) creates difficulties. Said Grotke, “The Library of Congress is archiving 4-5 terabytes of data every month, yet archiving every site [due to staffing and scaling obstacles] is impossible.”

Digital Archaeology continues at Internet Week through to Thursday, June 9^th so check back for further updates on the Cream blog.

Jim Boulton on Digital Archaeology