When you see the color green on the Wayback Machine, it indicates that the web crawler received a status code starting with “3nn.” These status codes represent redirects. A redirect occurs when a web page or URL has been moved to a different location. Instead of displaying the original content, the server directs the user to a new URL.
The use of green in the Wayback Machine is a helpful visual indicator to show that a redirect has occurred. It allows users to quickly identify when a page they are looking for has been moved or redirected.
Redirects can happen for various reasons. For example, a website may undergo a redesign, and the URLs for its pages may change. In this case, when a user visits an old URL, they are automatically redirected to the new URL where the content is now located. Redirects can also occur when a website changes its domain name or when a page has been permanently or temporarily moved to a different location.
The Wayback Machine captures web pages at different points in time, so it is not uncommon to encounter redirects when browsing archived content. When you come across a green result, it means that the original URL you requested was redirected to a different URL. The Wayback Machine captures this redirect and displays the archived version of the redirected page.
It’s worth noting that redirects can sometimes result in broken links or missing content if the new URL is no longer available. In such cases, the Wayback Machine may not be able to retrieve the content for the redirected page.
To summarize, when you see green on the Wayback Machine, it means that a redirect has occurred. This color is used to indicate that the original URL has been moved or changed, and the web crawler has captured the archived version of the redirected page.