Playboy Posts Free, Unedited Searchable Web Archive

It's sex. It's free. What more could you want?

Admittedly, it's soft-core, but Playboy and parnter Bondi Digital Publishing have unveiled PlayboyArchive.com. It's a 53-year archive, with one issue from each year, completely digitized (including ads), viewable and searchable.

Did I mention free?

If you've managed to avoid Microsoft's Silverlight to this point, you're going to have to install it if you want to view the archive, though.

The issues cover the years 1954 through 2007, Bondi Digital Publishing, who developed the platform for The Complete New Yorker, scanned and re-typed each of the issue of Playboy.

In the press release announcing the site, Hugh Hefner, Playboy Founder, Editor-in-Chief and Chief Creative Officer (as if I had to tell you that) said:

"Playboy has an incredibly rich history and an intensely loyal readership. This is the perfect opportunity to offer them something they have always wanted and also a great way to allow a whole new generation to easily explore the magazine."

I tried the site out (well, I had to, right), and while you can't expand the pages to full screen, you can zoom in and pan around the images. You can search for specific text (like say, Bo Derek), and there's a table of contents you can click through.

It's unclear if the issues will be changed from time to time, but that would make sense. Playboy says the issues currently at the site encompass many classic issues, and they include the famous issue with the interview with Jimmy Carter.