Geocities, Geocities, Geocities … so Yahoo have finally announced that they will be ditching the Geocities free web-hosting facility. What do internet veterans feel about this?

Well I remember when Geocities wasn’t owned by Yahoo and I probably set up my first homepage during spring of 1997. At that time it was pretty much the only way you could get yourself a free homepage online without paying someone hosting fees. It also introduced an internet novice to the simple theories of hand-coding HTML (and tables!), uploading files via a simple FTP, creation of graphics … and
a whole host of digital methodologies that have stood me in good stead over the last 12 years.

The one thing I never really understood were the ‘neighbourhoods’ but, hey, that was prolly just a US-gimmick that we all ended up having to use (I ended up in a Times Square Alley for some vague reason to do with gaming/video-gaming!)

I think I made my first site on HotDog ( a sort of basic WYSIWYG editor that you can still buy today. I quickly learned to ignore the WYSIWYG and just write directly into the HTML editor – something I still pretty much do today with Dreamweaver!) I produced my first site in about March 1997 and I think I gave it a facelift once a year until 2001. I put my first Flash experiments there and a whole host of other HTML junk – including some early CGI mail forms. It’s also the reason I have a Yahoo email address these days and use that primarily for webmail rather than my Gmail account (I think I had a Geocities account originally as my first true ‘online email’ system … and then got migrated to Yahoo)

In its day Geocities was THE REAL MySpace and allowed you I think about 15mb of freespace (it might have started at 2mb) Here you could upload pretty much anything you wanted – none of that nightmare tedious style hacking you have to do with MySpace (or plugging in a PimpMySpace type theme) … and it allowed you a helluva lot more freedom than both MySpace or Fakebook.

So why don’t I use it now? I guess like the internet itself, I kinda “grew up”. With my job it became mandatory to have a ‘proper’ portfolio site – which meant I had to pay someone for hosting. Once I got my account I figured might as well put everything there. I still used Geocities for hobbies and the like … but as I got older my ‘youth’ hobbies took a backseat. I still have a soft-spot for Geocities but yeah I guess I haven’t properly used it for over 5 years. I guess I’ll have to find somewhere else to host my hobbyists site – but these days you get 2Gb instead of 2Mb with most hosting and in the grand scheme of things I can prolly afford it.

Oh and those ad banners were always really really annoying back in the early days (I think that was another reason why I bit the bullet and got my own domain … and possibly another reason I, like most internauts, hate ad banners!) This was ultimately a reason for it’s death I guess – no shrinking ad revenue and a drop-off in usage in the face of the other ‘free’ social media sites, or free Blog templates like Wordpress and Blogger. All of which, for many users, are perhaps easier to use & manage with little knowledge of esoteric web-development skills.

It is a shame though – it kinda feels like the cheap guitar you learnt to play on that you always kept in the background and got out and strummed occasionally. And now the missus has thrown it out or given it to the charity shop!

Sky Songs – a new music service, in beta naturally, which offers a streaming service similar to Spotify for a little over 6 quid a month, has over 4m tracks AND you get to download 15 tracks to keep. Now that seems like the perfect model – a decent balance of streaming everything, a reasonable monthly charge AND you get a few favourites to keep. So why has Spotify cornered the market as the “plat du jour” of the streaming music services? How did it manage to get the drop on Last.fm and since its adoption of a download costing model (all neatly synched with partner 7Digital) … will it really start being a threat to iTunes music store?

Indeed it’s easy to see what next – live gig tickets link up. TV episodes over streaming subscription. Films. You name it. A decent subscription service with hefty bandwidth allowance might be the model for consuming all our media in the not very distant future.

However there is perhaps a mindset to overcome. This is possibly encapsulated by a famous Douglas Adams quote:

Anything that is in the world when you’re born is normal and ordinary and is just a natural part of the way the world works. Anything that’s invented between when you’re fifteen and thirty-five is new and exciting and revolutionary and you can probably get a career in it. Anything invented after you’re thirty-five is against the natural order of things.

And I think this could be quite pertinent to the furore and upheavals around how we consume music in the 21st century. If we split it by age, in my mind, it goes something like this:

• 20sthgs – think music should be free & disposable. Avoid all DRM or payment models where possible.
• 30sthgs – think most music should be free to sample – you buy only as & when. Will either avoid or hack DRM.
• 40sthgs – need to own it. Don’t mind paying. Not happy about DRM; but don’t sweat it. Owning the music’s the thing.
• 50 & 60sthgs – do whatever is free at the moment. Probably won’t buy very much – but then again respect the value in owning something and paying for it. Unlikely to hack DRM or download from Piratebay. They like the idea of internet radio (e.g. last.fm or spotify or just listen to online radio stations from the BBC or other providers) Possibly it reminds them of how they first got exposed to music through Radio 1 … or even the less establishment run stations such as Radio Caroline and Radio Luxembourg.

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So why is this the case? My opinion is it breaks down into the following demographics and the reasons behind it … it’s not perfect I know, I myself don’t fit neatly into any one demographic BUT it’s food for thought!

THE COLLECTORS (or NOSTALGICS)
For those in their late 30s – 40s, CDs were a big thing; expensive, very hard to rip at quality ( the awful home taping era) and this group probably went through a big transition of re-buying all their cherished LPs on CD. Some may even still treat their iPod like an extended mix tape! They have a strong urge to own & possess CDs, DVDs, old collectible comics, old Star Wars figures, retro movie posters and other nostalgia etc

THE FREEBOOTERS
For those now in their mid 20 – early 30s, CDs have always been cheap. Technology to rip & copy at decent quality has pretty much also always been there. They have embraced networked & shared media – Flickr, Spotify, Kazaa, Limewire, Napster, Rapidshare, Piratebay, iPlayer, internet Radio players, Last.fm Scrobblers etc They download films, music, games you name it. Pretty much get it free if they can; but may pay for really good / rare stuff or just to get ahead of their peers.

THE MEDIA URCHINS
For those in their late `teens – mid 20s it never occurs NOT to download. rip. copy

THE RENAISSANTS
For those in their early 50s – 60s, they possibly missed some of the big wave of converting LPs to CDs … and the download revolution may have similarly passed them by. Quite happy to have a more personalised radio approach … might rip a few old CDs or perhaps find old stuff online that they always meant to buy on CD/LP but never got round to it (think the comprehensive classic Jazz or Folk collections now available, remastered and cheap!) Possibly the most open to the possibilities and at the moment an untapped market. If the services can make it easy and relatively good value for money this demographic could make a big difference – as the Collectors are at saturation point while the Freebooters & Urchins continue to bootleg all they want.

I’m still convinced that the http://songs.sky.com/ model is the right way to go with a balance of streaming, value for money and ownership. It’s probably only a matter of time for Spotify to catch up … it has the brand & momentum for now. But if it doesn’t replicate what I perceive as the perfect balance from Sky, which caters to all the demographics above, then Spotify might miss the boat. Brand or not. Napster, previous “enfant terrible” of the peer-to-peer download services, already have something very similar for a fiver a month … and rumour has it a Google audio service is ready to launch imminently. But will any of them reach the ‘magic million’ number of paying subscribers? Whatever happens it will be an interesting ride over the next 18 months or so – just hold on to your headphones!

If you missed the stampede for Glastonbury tickets, now’s your chance to win some.

Wil went to a presentation from these guys out in Barcelona who explained that they made the board out of scratch and then used video to navigate around the game.

Apparently its very difficult to win, but I succeeded first time, oh yeah!

 

Great use of video

http://www.getthemessage.net/

 

Exceptional illustration and animation

http://www.havaianasus.com/

http://www.clubworldquest.ba.com/

Great use of webcam

http://www.secretfinal.com/

The power of collective commitment to a common cause.

http://fuh2.com/

As the website says: Waste your life watching other people wasting theirs. Justin’s life is live 247 and he makes money of product placements.

http://www.justin.tv/