Xanga: The End Of The Road?

Once a upon a time, if you wanted to connect with friends on the Internet, you likely would use Friendster or MySpace for your Social Media needs.   You were also likely to visit these two sites using a Netscape browser.  If you were a geek and wanted to create a free website, you might use GeoCities.

If you wanted to blog, there was really only one major choice:  Xanga.  Not to confuse it with the mobile gaming company Zynga.

Today, Friendster and MySpace are after thoughts with Facebook dominating the Social Media scent.  Netscape was overtaken by Internet Explorer and later discontinued though Firefox lives on as a descendant of the original Netscape.   GeoCities was closed down several years ago by Yahoo.

The lone holdout is Xanga as the site has quiet chugged on since it's founding in 1999.   However, Xanga is hitting a crossroads.  The site isn't well known these days and the company cannot afford to sustain operations.  They initiated a fund raising champaign to raise $60,000 to move Xanga to the WordPress platform.  Additionally, to sustain the site, they are asking users to pay for subscriptions.   Unfortunately, the effort ends tomorrow (July 31st) and Xanga is still short about $13,000.

Check on their fund raising effort here:

Xanga Crowdhoster

If Xanga cannot raise the $60,000 by tomorrow, the site will shut down.  If this happens, it will be a shame and also be the end of an era.  Xanga was the first blog for many people during the early 2000's. I signed up and blogged first the first time in August of 2004 and my last post was in July of 2006.   Xanga's entire situation got me to review my old Xanga blog which is located here:

Coach41's Xanga Blog

In looking through my old blog, I was surprised at some of my writings.  I had forgotten that I had blogged about some of my basketball experiences during those times.  While the writing isn't great, I am going to try and archive them for future reference.

I also remember that I chose NOT to talk too much about my personal life on my Xanga blog.  I had felt people were revealing a little too much on their blogs (at that time anyway).  My tune hasn't changed too much even as I blog today.  I'll talk about some things in general but I choose not to reveal too many personal details.

If Xanga is forced to shut down, it will be a shame but it is the nature of the Internet.  Even though Facebook is big now, there is always the possibility that another site will become dominant in the future.

Geocities: The End of an Era

Yesterday, Yahoo ended an era when it closed the door on Geocities, a free website hosting service that has been around since 1994. Geocities had been an independent company in it's early years before being acquired by Yahoo in 1999.

There have been many news sites waxing nostalgia in the passing of Geocities. One of my favorites is linked here:

Goodbye GeoCities: 7 Retro Things We'll Miss Forever

When Yahoo announced that they were closing Geocities back in April, I had begun work to transition a personal site I had been running to another location. The website, which was basic compared to today's web pages, was something I had whipped up during my college days back in 1995.

Through the years, my website has been located at the following URL's:

http://userwww.sfsu.edu/~leed

http://www.geocities.com/tokyo/bay/6073 (Geocities before Yahoo)

http://www.geocities.com/smcoach41 (Geocities after Yahoo)

With the passing of Geocities, my website will be moving yet again. I easily could have just simply moved my existing webpages over to my new location. However, I decided to try some new things. However, in an effort to preserve some history, I noted on my new homepage that my website has existed since 1995 including my previous locations.

Alas, one regret I have was I did not download my Geocities files before Yahoo closed the service. I didn't think the stuff was all that historic but in retrospect, it would have been good to preserve some history.

In any case, the closing of Geocities does close the door on an era of 1990's computing that took us to where we are today. RIP Geocities. You will be missed.