ASHLAND, Ore., May 19, 209 — Before MySpace and Facebook, GeoCities reigned supreme when it came to personal websites. With its simplicity of use and free form, GeoCities Pagebuilder enabled anyone to create their very own site. The result was millions of web pages built by individuals, both novice and expert, from nearly every nation on the planet. Those pages are now facing extinction.
In April 2009, Yahoo! quietly announced that they would be closing GeoCities forever. Yahoo! did not state a closing date, nor did they issue any formal announcement about the closure. Only the most active GeoCities members learned about the planned closure when they edited their sites.
With the recent launch of WebRing's free Webspace, the timing of the GeoCities closure couldn't have been better for their members. WebRing's free Webspace allows anyone to easily create a website of their own, and add it to one or more topical WebRing communities (rings). WebRing offers its free members 50 MB worth of space to store files and to host their site, while premium members are allotted 1 GB.
"We recognize that most owners of these GeoCities sites are unaware that they are about to lose their sites forever," said Tim Killeen, owner of WebRing, Inc. "That's why we're being pro-active and reaching out to every one of our affected members."
"We're excited about the opportunity this provides members to realize the vision that we at WebRing had, when we were acquired by GeoCities in 1998, which was to enable website owners to create communities and connect with people," added Killeen.
WebRing is providing their members help with moving their GeoCities sites over to their free Webspace by offering whatever assistance they can.
WebRing's Marketing Coordinator, Kyle Stich, notes, "Many GeoCities sites pre-date the social networking boom. They often contain a wealth of information, colorful pages about hobbies, family and friends and are teeming with passion for their subject."
Such sites include a wide variety of self-published poems, stories and artwork as well as tributes to entertainers, games and authors and photo galleries commemorating births, weddings and other celebrations.
The date of final closure has not yet been announced. Some sources cite the end of summer. Whatever the date, unless the sites are moved, they will cease to exist. To date, hundreds of GeoCities members have already uploaded their pages to WebRing Webspaces.
For more information about WebRing.com and its services, contact Kyle Stich at Email or call (541) 488-9895.
Website: http://www.webring.com
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