Yahoo! shuts down GeoCities

Yahoo will shut down their free hosting Geocities service, leaving millions of refugees out in the cold.

I tried to post this in the breaking alternative news but couldn't due to a scripting error.

SAN FRANCISCO — Yahoo! on Monday closed GeoCities, a free Web hosting service that it purchased for over three billion dollars at the height of the dot-com boom.

"We have enjoyed hosting websites created by Yahoo! users all over the world, and we're proud of the community you've built," the California-based Internet pioneer said in a message at the GeoCities website.

"However, we have decided to focus on helping our customers explore and build relationships online in other ways."

Yahoo! said GeoCities would not be available after Monday and recommended GeoCities refugees set up new online homes at its paid Web hosting service, with an introductory offer of just five dollars for the first 12 months.

Yahoo! Shuts down Geocities

I've know about it for quite awhile now.

They notified all account holders. I liked geocities a lot and have used it since about 99.

This is only the first few baby steps towards full blown control and totalitarianism on the internet where access is priced out of range and/or made more difficult to obtain.

When I was a bit younger pup I made two websites, one about the ufo pictures I took and a page on Earth reptiles who went into their own past to kill off their sub-reptile ancestors to make way for the mammals- something that someone not selling something wouldn't make up if he/she had to pay monthly for a service they 'didn't' really need.

Short stories, pictures-who needs them, but they're nice to look at.

Is Yahoo! Trying to stifle creativity among the herd (yeah that's what I said ) or are they just trying to cut costs, despite earning much higher profits, and could easily afford to keep Geocities floating?

Incidentally, Geocities had chat room features added to its service later in its life, but I have never used it.

Anyone have suggestions for a similar free service?

reply to post by ThaLoccster

It's unfortunate, I wonder how many sites, old or new, will be lost or neglected.

Yahoo! Didn't even have much success with its premium pay service so I don't know if it will make or hurt them.

I'll do a quick search for my old stuff

good riddance. web 1.0 sites are out dated anyway. i hope they not only remove the ability to sign up, but remove the ability for the websites to even be displayed.

i do however hope they provide a service that allows the existing data in each account to be downloaded as a zip, stripped of course of its bloated ad code.

my advice to those of you who are affected is to learn css and html, or do a search for "free php hosting"

most of the decent ones have some sort of site builder

[edit on 10/27/2009 by prototism]

Originally posted by star in a jar
Anyone have suggestions for a similar free service?

Man, there are freehosts everywhere.

Here is a link you might find useful:

lmgtfy.com...

reply to post by Symbiote
There is, thanks you two, For me at least it's symbolic, maybe at first impression it seemed dramatic but if there are other services out there for free then this is largely a non-issue

Hmmm, not surprising, thing im worried about is there where or are some very good sites that used/use GeoCity hosting. I know there where some rather good UFO sites that had interesting bits and pieces in them that given how sites are abandoned often alot of it will be lost for good. Ive got a big interest in D&D and am a Planescape fan... the rule books have been out of print for almost a decade (ive got a good number of PDF's of the manuals) but there was the odd GeoCities site with little custom material or rules for it that was useful.

I dont go to any of them any more, heck cant even remember the URL's, but its more a nostalgia issue for me. Sure ads and the like where a pain, but who knows what will be lost when the lights go out.

Hopefully the little gems will move to better free sites to live on. Even so i still cant help but feel just a little sad also hearing this like Star in a Jar.

[edit on 28-10-2009 by BigfootNZ]

It doesn't surprise me in the least.

I was friends with the main instigator of the Yahoo! buyout of Geocities. The primary reason for the buyout was to obtain the assets Geocities obtained when buying out the small developer StarSeed, who's Ring Technology was considered the Killer App of the early Web. Yahoo! really had little interest in anything else Geocities had to offer, other than this sole asset. My friends that owned StarSeed profited quite well off it, as Geocities matched their buyout offer with an equal amount of Geocities Stock Options, which doubled in value when Yahoo! bought out Geocities.

I doubt that the Ad Revenue generated by Geocities offset the Operating Costs, and it was ultimately dead weight for Yahoo! It was long overdue that they cut the umbilical.

Personally, I'm glad that this isn't just a ceasing of operations, but a total deletion. Geocities had an infamous Terms of Service that granted them unusual ownership over content. Knowing that all content, current as well as previous, will be wiped completely gives those who ever had a Geocities website peace of mind.

reply to post by fraterormus

Personally, I'm glad that this isn't just a ceasing of operations, but a total deletion. Geocities had an infamous Terms of Service that granted them unusual ownership over content. Knowing that all content, current as well as previous, will be wiped completely gives those who ever had a Geocities website peace of mind.

Hmm, interesting... When I first made my page, I never noticed that Geocities had such a TOS.

Copyright was the furthest thing from my mind when I put my foot in the internet pool to create a page but I can see how some people would have not taken well to Geocities over this.

I wasn't internet savvy at that point (still aren't) and Geocities made it easy for me to create a page.

Oh well. RIP Geocities.

reply to post by BigfootNZ

I know there where some rather good UFO sites that had interesting bits and pieces in them that given how sites are abandoned often alot of it will be lost for good.

That's the worst part, isn't it, especially when the material is good or unique.

Wow.
Impact statement.
One of my favorite links is gone.
All searches find all copy cat publications for original
work that is most likely half the material.
en.wikipedia.org...
Wiki was the best yet did not see the anagram material.
See in External links:
Roberta Ballantine's A Christopher Marlowe Notebook.
www.geocities.com...
Her interesting page led me to a few others with more
of the same great story.
Well Wiki had a time line display of shocking evidence.
The death of Marlowe, Tesla , Hitler and others together
with tales of just stories makes for the top mysteries.
Geocities had material before it's time.

I never like GeoCities it was crappy website hosting

www.archive.org... has screen caps of many Geocities sites. Get 'em while you still can!

Sorry for the one-liner, but could this have anything to do with Yahoo! preparing in advance for things likethis or this?