San Francisco, October 27: Yahoo! has closed GeoCities, a free Web hosting service that it purchased for over three billion dollars at the height of the dot-com boom.
“We have enjoyed hosting websites created by Yahoo! users all over the world, and we’re proud of the community you’ve built,” the California-based Internet pioneer said in a message at the GeoCities website.
“However, we have decided to focus on helping our customers explore and build relationships online in other ways.”
Yahoo! said GeoCities would not be available after yesterday and recommended GeoCities refugees set up new online homes at its paid Web hosting service, with an introductory offer of just five dollars for the first 12 months.
The closure of GeoCities comes a week after Yahoo! reported that aggressive cost-cutting helped it more than triple its net profit despite a 12-per cent decline in revenue in its third quarter.
–Agencies