Why Geocities Was Special, Pre-Yahoo!
Geocities was a thriving metropolis before Yahoo! took it over. Their unique identifying feature was the way Geocities Web pages were layed out. When you went to set up your website, the first thing you did was choose which country you wanted it to live in. Then you chose a city, then you chose a theme. You became part of a Geocities community.
The first thing Yahoo! did when they took over Geocities was get rid of this really cool feature. Then Geocites was just another web hosting provider. Yahoo! took away from Geocities the one thing that made it special.
Yahoo!'s Announcement
I have a Yahoo! Geocities account, yet I never received an email telling me that Yahoo! Geocities was closing down. When you log in, you get this message:
"After careful consideration, Yahoo! has decided to close GeoCities later this year.
You can continue enjoying your GeoCities service until then — we just wanted you to let you know about the closure as soon as possible. We'll share more details this summer. For now, please visit the help center for more information."
When you click on the "help center" link you're taken to a FAQ telling you about the Yahoo! Geocities closure.
Details About Yahoo! Geocities Closure
- When? All they're saying for now is "later this summer".
- What to do? They'll give you information in late summer, 2009, on how to back up and save, or move your website.
- Why? I think they're trying to get away from free Web hosting and concentrate on only their pay service, Yahoo! Web Hosting service. This is, however, called Yahoo! Small Business and seems to not be for personal website hosting.
- What does the new service cost? $4.95 per month, for the first year, then $9.95 per month after that.
- What does the new Yahoo! Web hosting service offer? Easy to use editor, free domain name hosting, email addresses and email storage, unlimited storage space for your website, 24-7 customer support.