Web rewind: Opera gathers internet nostalgia and sends three winners to CERN

Opera has launched Web Rewind – an interactive collection of the internet’s “baby photos,” celebrating 30 years of the browser. Styled as a playful timeline, users can flip through different eras, revisit classic memes, and share their own stories. At the same time, Opera is running a contest: the three best submissions will win a trip to CERN. Entries are open until March 27, 2026.

How to enter the Web Rewind contest

Follow these simple steps:

• Go to the website web-rewind.com and click “Submit.”
• Describe your web memory in 500 characters or less.
• Attach a photo or video (optional) – maximum file size 10MB.
• The deadline is March 27, 2026. Three winners will be chosen, and the trips are scheduled before June 30, 2026.

How Web Rewind differs from the Wayback Machine

In short, Web Rewind isn’t about archiving “how things were” but creating an emotional, curated catalog. Whereas the Wayback Machine captures snapshots of websites mechanically and objectively, Web Rewind annotates eras, adds interactive layers, and invites people to share personal stories. It’s more like a museum exhibit you can click through rather than a vast warehouse of raw source files.

For Opera, this is classic marketing: nostalgia as an engagement tool. User-generated content brings the project life and free PR; in return, Opera gains traffic and strengthens its emotional connection with users. Nothing shady – just a clear bet on memories that translate well into shares and mentions.

“To mark the big 3-0, we’re hunting for the best web memories that actually stuck. We’re encouraging everyone to reflect for a second and submit their own »Web Rewind« moments – whether it’s a life-changing online interaction, a nostalgic gaming site, or a piece of internet folklore that defined your experience online.

The authors of the three best entries will win a trip to the birthplace of it all: CERN in Switzerland. This is where the World Wide Web was born in the early 90s. Winners will get the rare chance to visit the home of the Large Hadron Collider and stand where Sir Tim Berners-Lee first revolutionized how we share information.”

Opera, press release

What’s next

The future is pretty clear-cut: either the project remains a one-off campaign – leaving behind a few thousand stories on the site – or Opera develops Web Rewind into a regular initiative with collaborations involving museums, archives, and educational programs. In either case, the key question is how long users will keep coming back to the “game-like” timeline once the initial hype dies down.

One unanswered question remains: will major archives and independent researchers trust a commercial project – even one with a charming vibe – to tell the story of brands and memes? Judging by the current wave of nostalgia, we’ll likely find out soon enough in social feeds and reposts.