Yahoo! Closes Free Website Host GeoCities
Website Owners and Archivists Concerned by Loss of Data
May 17, 2009
Yahoo!'s April 23, 2009 announcement of its intent to close GeoCities at an unspecified date later in 2009 surprised many who had followed the web hosting company through its 15 year development. Applying the word "historic" to a company operating in the short term of the Internet's existence may seem unusual, but GeoCities deserves that term.
Origin of GeoCities
Created in 1994 as Beverly Hills Internet (BHI), GeoCities provided an early application of what would later be identified as social networking concepts. In a July 5, 1995 Business Wire article, developer David Bohnett pinpointed the social context of his service. "Our goal in bridging cyberspace and reality is to attract netters who want to colonize the web - to put down roots in a GeoCity they feel comfortable and familiar with to call home, where they can express themselves, create their own content, build their own neighborhoods," stated Bohnett.
Thus GeoCities website owners became “homesteaders” who took up residence in a “neighborhood” with others of similar interests. “GeoCities” emerged as the term describing geographic locations chosen for symbolic impact. Theater fans lived on Broadway. Wine lovers resided in Napa Valley. Homepage addresses of subscribers also reflected this geographic orientation.
Yahoo! Purchases GeoCities
Yahoo! acquired GeoCities in 1999 and soon began stripping it of this unique geographical identification. In 2001 Yahoo! qualified the free nature of the site by offering subscribers an additional fee-based premium version. GeoCities premium websites ran without the advertisements that resided on the pages of those subscribing the free service, which Yahoo! also continued.
Decline and Fall of GeoCities
Acting on a policy of closing their less profitable services, Yahoo! focused on GeoCities in 2009 after having shut down several other offerings. Yahoo! assured their GeoCities clients that their sites could be moved to Yahoo! Web Hosting, a fee-based Yahoo! service originally designed for commercial sites that provides its users with their choice of web editing software.
Response to GeoCities Closure
Website owners with active sites on GeoCities were not pleased by Yahoo!’s announcement of the service's impending closure. Since many site owners chose GeoCities because it was a free service, they did not want Yahoo! to transfer their site to its paid service. As a result, they were faced with the sudden problem of moving their sites' contents to other hosts.
Fortunately the website hosting market quickly rallied to the cause of saving GeoCities websites. Web host Jimdo advertised its “lifeboat” designed to rescue GeoCities sites. Similarly, Wetpaint, another hosting company, offered GARP, Wetpaint's Geocities Asset Recovery Plan.
Archival Concerns of GeoCities Closure
Since Yahoo! had not, in its initial announcement, clarified what it planned to do with its GeoCities data after its closure of that service, archivists also voiced alarm over the potential loss of valuable data. Jason Scott’s Archive Team quickly began work on a project to capture and mirror all GeoCities pages before Yahoo! completed its closure of GeoCities.
Lessons Learned from GeoCites Closure
GeoCities clients should not have been taken by surprise at Yahoo!'s announcement of the imminent closure of that service. No matter how historic their origin, web-based services exist within the transient environment of the Internet. Users of such services should always be prepared for their eventual discontinuance. The closure of GeoCities should also make Internet users more aware of the importance of archival retrieval of data contained within closed sites.
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