The World Wide Web has now been in use for more than 20 years. From early browsers to today's principal source of information, entertainment and much else, the Web is an integral part of our daily lives, to the extent that some people believe 'if it's not online, it doesn't exist.' While this statement is not entirely true, it is becoming increasingly accurate, and reflects the Web's role as an indispensable treasure trove. It is curious, therefore, that historians and social scientists have thus far made little use of the Web to investigate historical patterns of culture and society, despite making good use of letters, novels, newspapers, radio and television programmes, and other pre-digital artefacts.

Introduction: The Web as History Ralph Schroeder and Niels Brügger PART ONE THE SIZE AND SHAPE OF WEB DOMAINS 1. Analysing the UK web domain and exploring 15 years of UK universities on the web Eric T. Meyer, Taha Yasseri, Scott A. Hale, Josh Cowls, Ralph Schroeder and Helen Margetts 2. Live versus archive: Comparing a web archive to a population of web pages Scott A. Hale, Grant Blank and Victoria D. Alexander 3. Exploring the domain names of the Danish web Niels Brügger, Ditte Laursen and Janne Nielsen PART TWO MEDIA AND GOVERNMENT4. The tumultuous history of news on the web Matthew S. Weber 5. International hyperlinks in online news media Josh Cowls and Jonathan Bright 6. From far away to a click away: The French state and public services in the 1990s Valérie SchaferPART THREE CULTURAL AND POLITICAL HISTORIES7. Welcome to the web: The online community of GeoCities during the early years of the World Wide Web Ian Milligan 8. Using the web to examine the evolution of the abortion debate in Australia, 2005-2015 Robert Ackland and Ann Evans 9. Religious discourse in the archived web: Rowan Williams, Archbishop of Canterbury, and the sharia law controversy of 2008 Peter Webster 10. 'Taqwacore is Dead. Long Live Taqwacore' or punk's not dead?: Studying the online evolution of the Islamic punk scene Meghan Dougherty 11. Cultures of the UK web Josh Cowls 12. Coda: Web archives for humanities research - some reflectionsJane Winters