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Yahoo Scraps Geocities

April 24th, 2009 · by David Bradley >> 6 Comments

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yahoo-scraps-geocitiesYahoo has pulled the plug on Geocities the freebie web space system.

If you’re of a certain age, you probably had a Geocities account back in the early days of web 1.0 It was like the 90s version of MySpace before MySpace was even a twinkle in anyone’s eye. It was kludgy (like MySpace) and people created gaudy and usually awful websites using it. Quite sad, really, when there were so many other possibilities. It did, however, get a lot of people on to the web who would otherwise have not been able to.

Well, now that we’re fast leaving behind even version 2.0 of the web and heading for something much more powerful and driven by semantics, Yahoo! in its wisdom has decided to pull the plug on Geocities. I don’t think I feel at all sad about that. I don’t recall ever enjoying a visit to a Geocities site, but I rarely enjoy visiting MySpace sites either.

But, if you have a Geocities account what are you to do with it now that it is being closed down? Well, Yahoo suggests you upgrade to a paid Yahoo! web hosting account. But I’d advise backing up your Geocities pages for posterity. Then get some decent hosting elsewhere, register a new personal domain and (re)create a new site there.

If there is an oppportunity to tell your “readers” of your new whereabouts with your Geocities pages, then do so. Additionally, if you can redirect to your new domain do that right away even if it’s just a meta redirect (301 preferable but probably not available). Once you’ve done that may I the welcome you from the world of web 1.0 to the year 2009?

6 responses so far ↓

  • Alister // Apr 24, 2009 at 10:43 am

    Shame, the old simple sites where always filled with information.

    They should of been left just for the old times.

    Thanks for the update.

  • David Bradley // Apr 24, 2009 at 11:35 am

    A few of them may have been filled with useful information, but the vast majority I ever saw were just like proto-MySpace pages entirely useless. Of course, a Geocities/MySpace fan could say the same about this page (and, funnily enough, many of them do in expletive-littered comments that are instantly blacklisted and get their IP banned ;-)

  • Alun // Apr 24, 2009 at 11:43 am

    From a humanities perspective, I’m hoping the Wayback Machine will capture most of it. By simply removing Geocities is a bit like getting rid of a wing of the Library of Alexandria. I’ll admit it’s a grubby run-down wing, with poor illumination and a rodent infestation problem. Still, it could be useful in saying something about early internet culture.

  • David Bradley // Apr 24, 2009 at 1:49 pm

    Sure Alun, I wasn’t advocating it be deleted. I really hope Wayback is grabbing it, rats and grubs alike.

  • Kim Woodbridge // May 6, 2009 at 1:28 pm

    Geocities was great for fan sites for movies or of a particular individual. The were god-awful to look at but you get random bits of information that wasn’t available elsewhere.

    I totally agree with NOT using Yahoo web hosting.

  • David Bradley // May 6, 2009 at 2:09 pm

    Yeah, I guess they were of a time, weren’t they… very much web 0.9alpha

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