Archive for the ‘Web’ Category

If you learned how to make websites in the 1990s, there’s a very good chance that you started out on a GeoCities website, or at least owned one at some point.  The service started providing free websites to just about anyone back in 1995.

It looks like GeoCities is on the way out. Yahoo! posted a notice on the site’s homepage that it will no longer allow new signups for the service, and will be closing it down entirely later this year.  They promise to explain why this summer.

Back in 1999, when the Internet was nice and bubbly, Yahoo! bought Geocities for $3.57 billion dollars.  I don’t think it went well.  They’re probably getting more press now than they’ve had since the acquisition

GeoCities started going downhill for users before Yahoo! entered the scene, when they started pushing more ads and floating watermarks onto the sites.  When Yahoo! bought them, they got worse.  I’m not sure what even happened to my sites back then, but by that point I was moving on to better hosting, and would soon be buying my own domains.

Still, I can’t help but to feel a little saddened as we say goodbye to GeoCities. I first learned how to make websites there, and although I’d probably laugh if I ever saw them again (and I fear I may have used the <blink> and <marquee> elements at some point), it’s hard not to be at least little nostalgic.

Word is that Microsoft will be releasing Internet Explorer 8 today.

The new version of Microsoft’s browser is ready to go.  And just as IE7 was less annoying than IE6, IE8 promises to be even better, with updates to its rendering, including expanded CSS support.  Better AJAX functionality and RSS tools are also included.

The main features of the new browser, though, revolve around security, privacy and speed — IE8 is supposed to be a much safer, faster browser to use, brining it closer to its fast-moving competitors.

The browser is set to launch at around noon today, according to Microsoft.  When the final becomes available, it’ll show up here.  I guess this afternoon I’ll need to take it for a spin around my sites, and my clients’ sites, to make sure everything plays nice in IE8.

Hopefully this also encourages some people (and IT departments) to move away from IE6, now that it’s two versions behind.

I’m writing to tell you that I’m not writing about Google Chrome.

It’s not surprising.  It’s not exciting.  It’s not interesting.

I just don’t care.