You might have heard of Geocities in passing, however if you are new to the Web, or the way things once were – all this concern about a free hosting service might be a little confusing. So I figured, what better way to pay tribute to the web host that once was, than to give you a history lesson in Geocities.
How Geocities Got Started
In late 1994, a small web hosting service was founded with the name Beverly Hills Internet. Back then, users would select a virtual “city” where they wanted their web site to categorized under. For example, you had Area 51 for science fiction web sites, or Baja for SUV and adventure travel web sites.
Changing the Name to Geocities
As they grew in size and popularity, they knew they had to change the name. They were getting thousands of sign ups a day and getting over six million monthly page views. So in December of 1995, they officially changed the name from Beverly Hills Internet to Geocities.
Geocities continued to grow, and by June of 1997 they were the fifth most popular web site on the Web. Through 1997 and 1998 Geocities introduced advertising on hosting client’s pages to hopefully make the product more profitable.
The Watermark Heard Around the World
What will be remembered as a footnote in brand awareness and web hosting, in June of 1998 Geocities introduced a watermark on user web pages. Users were upset, because they felt that the JavaScript powered logo interfered with their web site design.
Yahoo! Takes Over Geocities
The company went public in 1998, with a listing on the NASDAQ. At the peak of the dot-com bubble, a deal was struck. Yahoo purchased Geocities for $3.57 billion. Many might say Yahoo!’s first move with this new project under their belt, might have been the worst. In 1999, Yahoo! alienated many of the Geocities fan base by including in its terms of service that Yahoo owned all of the hosted content, including pictures and any other media uploaded. Yahoo! did reverse the decision.
As far as innovation goes, Yahoo! didn’t do much with the Geocities brand after that point. That leads us to April 2009, where Yahoo! announced Geocities would be closing later in 2009.
Be sure to catch the rest of our Geocities Tribute on Podcast 186 of the Web Hosting Show!
