Archiveteam did a full site crawl[1] when Anandtech announced they were stopping. You can browse the warc.gz files like a regular web page using https://replayweb.page
Alternatively you could use solrwayback[2] to index and browse the warc files.
This is not great. Decades of hardware reviews all the way back to the first GPUs becoming less accessible. Why would anyone consider taking it down when there was so much content that could be hosted with little effort while still making some ad revenue? Anandtech articles were still at the top of many Google searches.
Static hosting is essentially free. Add ads and it's a cash machine, not the opposite. Either there's something that they didn't tell us or they're incompetent.
The only thing needed is a staticization of their website, which any CMS they had could very easily be set up to do. Look at the archives of NYT, they're barebone pages that preserve the content without any dynamic areas.
Simultaneously, the fact that anyone with any supposed business experience gifted that priceless level of ranking would decide to shut down the business is insane.
Like, the fact that someone is making money off of MySpace.com right now and Anandtech couldn’t swing it makes zero logical sense. To me it feels like they tried nothing and were all out of ideas.
They were already bought out. By Purch in 2014, and then Future [0] in 2018.
This reads like some shit-for-brains VP at the acquirer couldn’t figure out how to make it work, so they’re putting it on ice.
The most destructive part of acquisitions seems to be the acquirer assigning a low-talent leader to the new acquisition, who then by virtue of no experience runs it into the ground, then blames its failure on the company itself.
Sadly, I’ve had to resort to ChatGPT for stuff like this. Their internal archive will last longer.
Of course, now there’s less and less of a way to see if it’s hallucinating.
Going through this with an old hardware project where ChatGPT says _____ vulnerability exists in their early units, but zeeero references, even on archive.org
anandtech.com now redirects to the forums instead its front page of articles. Here is what the website previously tweeted about its future a year ago after winding down operations.[1]
"And while the AnandTech staff is riding off into the sunset, I am happy to report that the site itself won’t be going anywhere for a while. Our publisher, Future PLC, will be keeping the AnandTech website and its many articles live indefinitely. So that all of the content we’ve created over the years remains accessible and citable. Even without new articles to add to the collection, I expect that many of the things we’ve written over the past couple of decades will remain relevant for years to come – and remain accessible just as long."
> AnandTech will stay online so readers can continue to access articles from our archive, and the forums will remain active to serve our community. Our sister site Tom's Hardware, will also continue to publish all the latest news, reviews and more from the PC world. Thank you all
Future PLC seems to be gradually shutting down all of its activities, one publication or site at a time.
It's a shame because many of them had been publishing for decades. Were they really completely unsustainable? The ads in magazines like Computer Music and Future Music were actually interesting and relevant, unlike typical garbage web ads.
I think it's more they've shifted away from their original focus as a specialist computer publisher into a more general publisher. I realised a couple of months ago they publish the TV Times nowadays, and also stuff like Country Life and Home and Gardens. Tech stuff is just another line on the balance sheet now.
I doubt if magazines (and websites etc.) in general are doing great, but for obvious reasons the more techy stuff is probably going to be a bit more vulnerable, particularly in print.
Chips and Cheese seems like a basically fine replacement for Anandtech. Things change, and the internet has gotten worse since then, but specifically chip benchmarking doesn’t seem too bad.
I think Chips and Cheese is more like a fine replacement for realworldtech.com sans the toxic and highly educational and entertaining forums. Anandtech was much more accessible to the general tech public, but also more commercial and thus hit and miss on the content (no judgement intended, gotta eat).
> I expect that many of the things we’ve written over the past couple of decades will remain relevant for years to come – and remain accessible just as long.
Readit News
Alternatively you could use solrwayback[2] to index and browse the warc files.
1: https://archive.fart.website/archivebot/viewer/job/202409012...
2: https://github.com/netarchivesuite/solrwayback
I was pleasantly surprised to find that the DWDS (digital dictionary of the German language) app is actually Kiwix!
[1]: https://www.kiwix.org/
[2]: https://github.com/openzim/warc2zim
... I haven't heard this name in 15 years probably. Back then you could bring Wikipedia offline on a laptop, it was only around 20-25 GB.
The only thing needed is a staticization of their website, which any CMS they had could very easily be set up to do. Look at the archives of NYT, they're barebone pages that preserve the content without any dynamic areas.
Like, the fact that someone is making money off of MySpace.com right now and Anandtech couldn’t swing it makes zero logical sense. To me it feels like they tried nothing and were all out of ideas.
But that’s private equity for you.
This reads like some shit-for-brains VP at the acquirer couldn’t figure out how to make it work, so they’re putting it on ice.
The most destructive part of acquisitions seems to be the acquirer assigning a low-talent leader to the new acquisition, who then by virtue of no experience runs it into the ground, then blames its failure on the company itself.
[0] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Future_plc
Dead Comment
Of course, now there’s less and less of a way to see if it’s hallucinating.
Going through this with an old hardware project where ChatGPT says _____ vulnerability exists in their early units, but zeeero references, even on archive.org
Originally heard this via https://x.com/System360Cheese/status/1951501044875477254.
The latest indexed frontpage in the Internet Archive is from July 28: https://web.archive.org/web/20250728143805/https://www.anand....
The original farewell article, which is now only readable through the IA: https://web.archive.org/web/20250726035557/https://www.anand.... One paragraph reads:
"And while the AnandTech staff is riding off into the sunset, I am happy to report that the site itself won’t be going anywhere for a while. Our publisher, Future PLC, will be keeping the AnandTech website and its many articles live indefinitely. So that all of the content we’ve created over the years remains accessible and citable. Even without new articles to add to the collection, I expect that many of the things we’ve written over the past couple of decades will remain relevant for years to come – and remain accessible just as long."
[1]: https://x.com/anandtech/status/1829489697384706555
It's a shame because many of them had been publishing for decades. Were they really completely unsustainable? The ads in magazines like Computer Music and Future Music were actually interesting and relevant, unlike typical garbage web ads.
I doubt if magazines (and websites etc.) in general are doing great, but for obvious reasons the more techy stuff is probably going to be a bit more vulnerable, particularly in print.
Seems people focused too much on the phrase "I am happy to report".
When the actual key phrase people missed was "for a while".
In hindsight, that implies knowledge it would be shutdown at some future date.
And while many people understand "indefinitely" to mean "unlimited", it also has a secondary meaning of "unspecified period of time".
AnandTech Farewell - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41399872 - Aug 2024 (598 comments)
https://forums.anandtech.com/threads/anandtech-editorial-ann...
It’s sad because I miss printed content like tech magazines.
> I expect that many of the things we’ve written over the past couple of decades will remain relevant for years to come – and remain accessible just as long.