It needs to be seen in its entirety to be truly appreciated. Web comic xkcd has retrofitted itself in late-1990s GIF glory to memorialize the Web-hosting service GeoCities, which Yahoo closed today.
I wrote about GeoCities' demise for the September print issue of the Prospect. One of my favorite observations about GeoCities came from Jason Scott:
A lot of people see GeoCities as this sea of amateurish, poorly written Web sites. I understand that thinking; I certainly don't want people to think that I'm saying GeoCities is an example of the best the Web could be, but I do think it's an example of what the Web was.
Scott has an eye-bleeding collection of "Under Construction" banners he has pulled from GeoCities as he archives. The Internet Archive's collection of GeoCities sites is here.
--Phoebe Connelly
(Image courtesy Harry the Cat. I highly recommend wasting part of your morning on their collection. Also, give a read to the Wikipedia entry on GIFs. Patent wars!)
