The nature of the internet is that it’s continuously changing, both because it is written by the general public and so will reflect the changing trends and moods; and because it is based on technology meaning it will of course change as the available tech advances.
While these changes have generally resulted in an improved experience and better web design, it has also meant the end of many of the websites and online services that were once prominent on the web. Here are some of the websites that were once major players online, but that have been victims of the changing times – either shrinking into obscurity or disappearing altogether. Enjoy the trip down memory lane…
Napster
Napster was the original file sharing service that focussed primarily on music (unlike those that would follow it). It was highly popular for a while, much to the chagrin of the record industry, but ultimately would fall victim to too many lawsuits. If you’re a romantic type though, you could view Napster as helping to seal the success of MP3s.
Kazaa
Whereas Napster was a file sharing service for music files, Kazaa would follow in its footsteps and allow file sharing for any kind of media. Again there was a time when everyone seemingly used Kazaa, and in this case the service is still running; but a proliferation of viruses along with the newfound popularity of Torrents has ultimately resulted in Kazaa sinking into relative obscurity.
WinAmp
WinAmp was a tidy little MP3 player that used to be a must for music fans dissatisfied with Windows Media Player. Today though Media Player really isn’t all that bad, and anyone who doesn’t use it uses iTunes instead leaving little room for WinAmp.
Bebo
There was a time when Facebook wasn’t king of the social networks and that crown was up for grabs. During this time MySpace was by far the most popular option (and nearly made this list – though to be fair it does still have a lot of users) but Bebo wasn’t far behind being the top choice for school children and other nippers. Today though the site is all but a graveyard and while it might boast a lot of users technically, you’ll be hard pushed to meet anyone in the real world who wants to swap Bebo pages…
Habbo Hotel
This might just be a case of my no longer being 15, but it seems that while Habbo was once a very exciting place on the net, it’s no longer such a hot topic. The idea is still rather cool – providing a Java powered web chat that let you walk around and talk to other users and even create your own rooms and take jobs. It seems though that a lack of development in the area as well as the popularity of MMORPGs rendered the service somewhat inert.
Yahoo Search
Yahoo has been reporting large losses over the past few years, and this is hardly surprising given the lack of support for its search engine. While once Yahoo was highly popular thanks in part to a great marketing campaign, the simple fact that Google provides better results has seen its market share shrink ad shrink.
Geocities
Geocities provided free hosting for anyone who wanted it under the proviso that they had some advertising on their pages. It was a great service for kids and hobbyists looking into web design for the first time, but sadly it’s no longer an option and there aren’t quite so many amateur sites populating the webs (yes that is a bad thing).
Guest Author Bio
Jeet has been working with internet for more than 15 years and he finds it fascinating that the web changes very quickly almost every day. He works with an seo services and link building company GetLinksPro.
4 comments
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JMC Website Design
May 21, 2012 at 9:39 am (UTC 1) Link to this comment
They bring back memories! And Lycos and Excite are still kicking! I found a website which converts a site to a geocities site, looks pretty funny: http://wonder-tonic.com/geocitiesizer/
Craig
May 21, 2012 at 10:40 am (UTC 1) Link to this comment
I just tried the link and it brought back memories of my first website!. Lycos and excite I thought had kicked the bucket I am going to have to have a look for them now
Daniel Sanderosn
September 17, 2012 at 7:44 pm (UTC 1) Link to this comment
Ah the good old days of Kazaa ;p
The worst one for me was when Yahoo integrated with Bing and the Yahoo site explorer disappeared, seemed to be the only reliable back-link checker!
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Craig
September 17, 2012 at 8:00 pm (UTC 1) Link to this comment
Yup they always seem to take away the good stuff
I do like the bing webmaster tools though