Get Your Own Dot-Com
Written: Mar 28 '00
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Everyone out there knows that it’s never easy to pick out just the right Christmas present, especially on a limited budget. My parents I know well enough to pick something out—anything golf for my dad and “How the Grinch Stole Christmas” for my mom (she had taped it once, but lost the tape). But what to do about my grandparents? My grandparents had bought WebTV as their Christmas present to each other, so I began to think…
My cousin told me about Geocities and how you could get free webspace from them. He promised to help. So, for that Christmas, my grandparents received their most creative present ever…they got their own “dot com” (their term for “webpage”). But they weren’t the only people who gained—I got my first knowledge of internet communities and their dynamics from my experience.
General Background
Yahoo! Geocities is one of many groups of internet communities (such as Angelfire, Xoom, AOL, etc.) offering free webpages to members. Some communities only offer web space, while some (like Yahoo! Geocities) practically offer to park your car and vacuum your house for you. I’m not quite sure how they make their money, but apparently they do.
Yahoo! Geocities divides their webpages into numerous categories. My page is in the Family section, known as “Heartland.” Each category (like a city) has a neighborhood (mine is Cottage). Finally, each neighborhood has an address (mine is 4226). In this way, it doesn’t seem quite so forbidding to internet newbies. Awards are offered for the best pages in each category (on a weekly basis), mainly consisting of site-wide recognition and glory. Don’t expect bucks.
Over all, I would say that Yahoo! Geocities is a good place to build and surf other webpages. It is generally easy to navigate, but don’t expect myriads of hits immediately.
Amazing (sort of) things about Yahoo! Geocities
~15 megabytes of space
~Your page is never removed unless it violates TOS
~You are given a reasonable amount of time to create your page
~Easy-to-use (albeit simple) html editors
~Comprehensive, easy-to-understand html guide
~Free graphics from Yahoo! Geocities’ online gallery
~Counters, guestbooks, etc.
Yes, that’s right, all these and more are offered by Yahoo! Geocities. The 15 megs of space is very useful for someone who wants to pack a lot into his/her webpages, dwarfing the competition by as much as 13 megabytes of space. For those of you who don’t understand what I am talking about, I have scanned about 20 pictures and a sound file (the page also contains about 5000 words), and still have used only 7 megabytes.
The best thing about Yahoo! Geocities, other than the price (nothing, nada, zilch, zip, aught, cero, nihil, free), is the ease of use. Take 10 minutes to sign up, then immediately go into the Basic HTML Editor, select a few options, choose a few pictures from an online gallery, pick your text color, type, and save. Viola! you have a webpage! If you want to get more advanced in your techniques, Yahoo! Geocities offers an online tutorial explicating and demonstrating some basic HTML code for you.
Finally, doesn’t everyone want to know how many people have seen your splendiforous site? Don’t you want to get great feedback? Yahoo! Geocities offers many extras (still for free) like counters (to see how many visitors, or “hits” your page has had) and guestbooks (where people can leave feedback), among other things.
Uh-oh, Spagetti-ohs
Okay, so maybe you don’t remember that commercial. Yahoo! Geocities does have a few flaws.
~No one will visit your page unless they know it exists (In other words, you better spread the word yourself. The community is so big that no one is likely just to stumble upon the page unless your “category manager”-esque people recommend it).
~E-Z File Upload allows you to upload pictures, text, audio, etc. from your computer easily, but not all computers support this feature.
~Hard to edit your pages.
Yes, you have to be somewhat of an advertising guru or HTML wizard or the director of a pyramid-scheme to get people to notice your pages. Unfortunately, for those whose computers don’t support E-Z Upload, you must use FTP (File Transfer Protocol), which, incidentally, I haven’t been able to get to work since the Yahoo! and Geocities merger. Finally, there is quite a bit of hassle in logging in, editing your pages, entering the file manager, selecting your page, opening the editor, etc. In short, patience is required.
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
lovdbyGod7
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Member: David Dinkins
Location: Rolla, Missouri
Reviews written: 139
Trusted by: 307 members
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