Many, many years ago, I had a personal web site on a Georgetown University web server that I built myself on a Windows 3.1 PC. That web server is still one of my proudest accomplishments as a geek, which is one reason I continue to tell that story. When I graduated and that server had to be retired (separate incidents, but they happened around the same time), I had to move my site to another host. Since I didn't have any bandwidth to host a site at home and work was no longer an option, I signed up for GeoCities. At the time it seemed like a great idea. They offered free web hosting and easy FTP uploading for data. What I didn't find out until later was that having a web site on GeoCities was like running your business out of a flea market. The sites themselves had weird URLs with goofy names like www.geocities.com/LosAngeles/7328/phil.html where you chose the "neighborhood" you wanted (LosAngeles) and then GeoCities assigned you a number that was "your" address in the neighborhood. The other sites on GeoCities were wacky pages that I wanted nothing to do with. I was ashamed just to be associated with them. I kept my site on GeoCities for about six months, until I got a new home computer and a dial-up account with web hosting privileges. I moved away from the flea market and never looked back.
Well, GeoCities became a Yahoo! property years ago, and now it's going away. I can't say I'll miss it, especially as I wasn't really aware it still existed and that anyone used it.
No comments:
Post a Comment