Another icon of the early Web will soon disappear.
GeoCities, one of the first free personal home page services that debuted in the 1990s, is shutting down later this year.
Before there was MySpace, Facebook, Twitter and YouTube, there was GeoCities, Angelfire, Xoom and Tripod.
The concept was simple: Offer people free Web page hosting in exchange for small banner ads running on the hosted pages.
The appeal of these services was that they made the process of creating a Web page fairly easy for the average person. Templates and limited design options allowed the novice to quickly add his or her presence to the early Internet community.
For those who needed more than a simple static Web page, various levels of paid options were available.
I was among the 1.1 million users of GeoCities in the early days.
So was Richard Becker, Minot, who is still using GeoCities and who first alerted me to the impeding shutdown of the service.
"That's the site I use to build my Web page," Becker wrote in a recent e-mail. "Any suggestions on another site I can use that's free and which I could copy over what I have currently?"
You might be surprised to learn there are still hundreds of free Web page hosting services available for the person whose online needs are simple.
Indeed, a few of GeoCities' cousins are still operating such as Tripod (www.tripod.lycos.com) and Angelfire (www.angel-fire.lycos.com). They, along with other free services, are well aware of GeoCities' impending shutdown and are, to varying degrees, looking to be the new home for the soon to be displaced GeoCities residents.
There are a number of free hosting services that actually offer more in terms of disk space and more complex coding options than GeoCities. For example, 000webhost.com offers intermediate to advanced Web functions such as MySQL databases, PHP, cron jobs, custom error pages, password protected directories and more as part of their free package. For just a few dollars a month, the service offerings dramatically increase.
The key in moving to a new free hosting service is making sure the services you currently use in GeoCities match the services offered by the new host. Some hosts, for example, may offer you less online storage space than GeoCities. Others may want to force your Web pages into their template formats which would mean significantly changing the look and function of your exisitng site.
Also, rules governing things such as acceptable types of content and incorporation of mandatory ads may differ from GeoCities.
You'll also want to check on whether the new host offers ways to easily transfer the content from your existing site to the new service.
Bottom line: Finding a free Web host is easy. Making sure it meets your existing needs will take a little effort on your part.
TheFreeSite.com has a very good list of free Web host services and short descriptions of what those services offer (www.thefreesite.com/Free_Web_Space). You may want to start your search for a new digital home there.
Also, using your favorite search engine, do a search on "free web hosting services" for a good list of free hosting services.
In addition to the sites already mentioned, below are some specific sites worth checking out as replacements for your GeoCities account or if you're just interested in creating a simple, no cost Web presence:
50Megs: www.50megs.com
WebNG: www.webng.com
1Hwy: www.1hwy.com
FreeWebTown: www.freewebtown.com
Hostrator: www.hostrator.com
Webs: www.webs.com
WebSamba: www.websamba.com
eSmartStart: www.esmartstart.com
AtSpace: www.atspace.com
[bismarcktribune]
GeoCities, one of the first free personal home page services that debuted in the 1990s, is shutting down later this year.
Before there was MySpace, Facebook, Twitter and YouTube, there was GeoCities, Angelfire, Xoom and Tripod.
The concept was simple: Offer people free Web page hosting in exchange for small banner ads running on the hosted pages.
The appeal of these services was that they made the process of creating a Web page fairly easy for the average person. Templates and limited design options allowed the novice to quickly add his or her presence to the early Internet community.
For those who needed more than a simple static Web page, various levels of paid options were available.
I was among the 1.1 million users of GeoCities in the early days.
So was Richard Becker, Minot, who is still using GeoCities and who first alerted me to the impeding shutdown of the service.
"That's the site I use to build my Web page," Becker wrote in a recent e-mail. "Any suggestions on another site I can use that's free and which I could copy over what I have currently?"
You might be surprised to learn there are still hundreds of free Web page hosting services available for the person whose online needs are simple.
Indeed, a few of GeoCities' cousins are still operating such as Tripod (www.tripod.lycos.com) and Angelfire (www.angel-fire.lycos.com). They, along with other free services, are well aware of GeoCities' impending shutdown and are, to varying degrees, looking to be the new home for the soon to be displaced GeoCities residents.
There are a number of free hosting services that actually offer more in terms of disk space and more complex coding options than GeoCities. For example, 000webhost.com offers intermediate to advanced Web functions such as MySQL databases, PHP, cron jobs, custom error pages, password protected directories and more as part of their free package. For just a few dollars a month, the service offerings dramatically increase.
The key in moving to a new free hosting service is making sure the services you currently use in GeoCities match the services offered by the new host. Some hosts, for example, may offer you less online storage space than GeoCities. Others may want to force your Web pages into their template formats which would mean significantly changing the look and function of your exisitng site.
Also, rules governing things such as acceptable types of content and incorporation of mandatory ads may differ from GeoCities.
You'll also want to check on whether the new host offers ways to easily transfer the content from your existing site to the new service.
Bottom line: Finding a free Web host is easy. Making sure it meets your existing needs will take a little effort on your part.
TheFreeSite.com has a very good list of free Web host services and short descriptions of what those services offer (www.thefreesite.com/Free_Web_Space). You may want to start your search for a new digital home there.
Also, using your favorite search engine, do a search on "free web hosting services" for a good list of free hosting services.
In addition to the sites already mentioned, below are some specific sites worth checking out as replacements for your GeoCities account or if you're just interested in creating a simple, no cost Web presence:
50Megs: www.50megs.com
WebNG: www.webng.com
1Hwy: www.1hwy.com
FreeWebTown: www.freewebtown.com
Hostrator: www.hostrator.com
Webs: www.webs.com
WebSamba: www.websamba.com
eSmartStart: www.esmartstart.com
AtSpace: www.atspace.com
[bismarcktribune]
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