ck/ck

In Memoriam: Geocities

I’m glad to see the passing of Geocities being noted today, here on Tumblr and elsewhere. Even if it’s been more or less irrelevant in this decade, for those who’ve been around the internet block for a while, Geocities played a big role in the early days and it’s hard not to feel a bit sentimental and nostalgic hearing that it has finally been shuttered.

I had my very first website on Geocities, I had my own spot in the Hollywood neighbourhood. The way Geocities categorized and assigned your website address back then seems utterly laughable these days, but then it seemed perfectly normal to pick a neighbourhood and then pick a number, as if you were moving to a house. But a lot of the early web was like that in my mind, emulating pre-existing things as to make them seem more familiar and relatable.

I wish I still had a record of my first website somewhere, but I think it has gone by way of the dinosaurs, but you can take my word for it, it definitely looked a lot like today’s xkcd’s tribute, which is eerily familiar.