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Remember when the internet was a wild west of creativity, strange communities, and pioneering ideas? Join us as we journey back through time to revisit some of the most iconic and memorable online destinations that have faded into the digital ether. From early social networks to educational hubs, controversial streaming services to beloved virtual worlds, these sites once captured our imaginations before ultimately going offline. Get ready for a nostalgic trip down memory lane, celebrating the digital ghosts that shaped our early online experiences.
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00:00Adobe has finally killed Flash Player in good riddance.
00:04Welcome to Ms. Mojo, and today we're looking at retro websites that no longer exist, aside from Internet Archive.
00:10If you want more Madden footage, head over to GameTrailers.com.
00:15Number 20, Newpedia.
00:17Before Wikipedia cemented itself as the Internet's go-to information source, there was Newpedia.
00:23Actually, both sites had creators in common, Jimmy Wales and Larry Sanger.
00:26In 2000, the two launched Newpedia as a free content online encyclopedia driven by volunteer contributors.
00:33Through our work, which is never perfect, but we're always plugging away trying to make it better, we've become pretty well trusted, and I think that's kind of cool.
00:42Although Newpedia shared many similarities with Wikipedia, there was one notable difference.
00:47Newpedia required articles to be peer-reviewed, with a seven-step approval process.
00:51The following year, Wales and Sanger created Wikipedia as a side project.
00:55Unlike Newpedia, Wikipedia didn't require a meticulous peer-review, leading to a faster growth.
01:01Within a month, Wikipedia had almost 200 articles, ten times more than Newpedia.
01:06How much money do you make from this?
01:08None.
01:09Why do you do it?
01:10The idea of it, making it all free, fascinates me.
01:13My mother grew up in the Soviet Union, so I'm very conscious of what it can mean to make knowledge free.
01:19While Sanger preferred Newpedia, Wales found Wikipedia more convenient and user-friendly.
01:25After Sanger exited in 2002, Newpedia only lasted another year, eclipsed by Wikipedia.
01:30Wikipedia was going to be paired with another website called Newpedia, which was going to actually vet the articles and post them as being expert-approved.
01:43Number 19, Boo.com
01:46Boo.com was founded in March 1999, a year before the dot-com bubble peaked and ultimately popped.
02:03Specializing in trendy sportswear and fashion, this e-retailer was among the earliest casualties of the dot-com crash, although there were once high hopes for Boo.com.
02:12So much so, that backers invested millions, wanting it on the dot-com boom.
02:16Now you've seemed to have, uh, 70 million pounds I believe they spent on their technology and you've picked it up for a song by the sounds of things.
02:25Uh, yes, I think we have.
02:26The vision for the site was overly ambitious given this era's technological limits, leading to a series of high-profile delays.
02:33Upon finally launching, many users struggled to navigate the site, finding it complicated and slow.
02:38Sales were low, but spending was excessive, with the company going through $135 million in a year and a half.
02:45Boo's employees and investors were in for a scare by May 2000, as the company faced liquidation.
02:50Well, the young founders of Boo.com discovered the answer to that when they tried to build a state-of-the-art global fashion business and ended up with the ultimate dot-com disaster.
03:01Number 18, Blipp.tv.
03:03Blipp.tv is the biggest online video network you've probably never heard of.
03:08Blipp streams some 50 million videos monthly, but 95% of them are seen on blogs and websites, not on Blipp.tv.
03:15Blipp.tv was founded in May 2005, just three months after YouTube launched.
03:19Where YouTube was initially associated more with viral videos, Blipp.tv provided a platform for content creators to share and monetize their web series.
03:28Channel Awesome, Rooster Teeth, and Red Letter Media were just some of the production companies that teamed with Blipp, which accumulated 100 million video views by 2010.
03:36Blipp or Blipp.tv?
03:37Blipp. Blipp.tv. They both work.
03:39So you have, you're launching an entirely new design for your site?
03:44Yep, yep.
03:44Right?
03:44It's our first consumer product, and it's really designed to solve the problem.
03:48Even so, it was hard to compete with YouTube's growing dominance.
03:51In 2013, shortly after many of its founders left, Blipp fell under the ownership of Maker Studios, now known as Disney Digital Network.
03:59The writing was pretty much on the wall when Blipp was shut down in 2015, driving many of its creators to YouTube.
04:04In a recent post that he did when he hit a million subscribers on YouTube, is that you want to be able to have the audience know when they can come and find content.
04:14Number 17, At The Movies TV.
04:17Is film criticism an art in itself?
04:19Roger Ebert, Gene Siskel, and Richard Roper made a case for this through the show, At The Movies.
04:25In 2007, several years after Siskel died, and shortly after Ebert had to leave for health reasons,
04:30At The Movies TV.com introduced The Balcony Archive, complete with video reviews going back to the mid-80s.
04:37Although it appeared the show's legacy would be preserved online, At The Movies endured some creative changes over the coming years, leading to its decline.
04:44Our goal was to tape the show in real time, and we were hearing for the first time what the other guy said at the same time that the audience was.
04:52In practice, things didn't always go quite that smoothly.
04:55Following its cancellation in 2010, the site disappeared along with its vast video library.
04:59Clips and episodes have since resurfaced online through third parties, often of lower video quality.
05:05At The Movies deserves an official, curated site with these reviews restored.
05:09For a recap of all the movies on both of our lists, you can go to AtTheMoviesTV.com.
05:13While you're there, browse through more than 20 years of movie reviews in The Balcony Archive.
05:17Number 16, Nick Reboot.
05:19If you want to re-watch your favorite Nickelodeon shows from the 90s and 2000s,
05:23you'll need a subscription to Paramount Plus or another streaming service.
05:27During the early 2010s, though, there was Nick Reboot, an unauthorized service that streamed Nickelodeon reruns 24-7.
05:34Nick Reboot not only streamed classic shows, but also nostalgic bumpers and commercials, fully recreating the experience.
05:47While its mysterious creators argued this was fair use, it was only a matter of time until Viacom took legal action, bringing about the site's inevitable end in 2015.
05:55Recently, the domain NickRebootTV surfaced, although it's apparently invite-only.
06:01Nevertheless, this gave Reddit users hope that Nick Reboot might make a comeback, but it's unlikely the original site will ever return in his former glory.
06:08Tra-la, tra-la-la-la-la-la, tweely-tweely-tum, bang-bang, shoo-loo-da-loo-loo-loo-nickelodeon.
06:17Number 15, Ogurish.
06:20If Ogurish were a YouTube channel, all of its content would get demonetized.
06:24As such, we'll avoid showing any of the graphic, unedited videos that drove curious viewers to Ogurish in the early 2000s.
06:30Containing uncensored gore and even death, Ogurish was not only controversial for releasing disturbing imagery, but doing so without consent.
06:38You can see the expression on the guy's face change from being utterly terrified to being in a lot of pain to, you know, fading away.
06:46In one case, the FBI instructed Ogurish to remove a video containing the killing of Daniel Pearl, a Wall Street Journal reporter.
06:53Despite the site's shocking and, to some, unethical nature, Hayden Hewitt argued that Ogurish was tremendously serious and his community was remarkably reserved.
07:02By Halloween 2006, Ogurish was phased out to make way for LiveLeague, another video-sharing site containing extreme violence.
07:08Because, you know, all you've really seen prior to that are kind of Hollywood renditions of these things, and the reality was just so much worse.
07:18Since 2021, LiveLeague redirects users to itemfix.com.
07:23Number 14, Game Trailers.
07:25The late 90s and early aughts saw the rise of several gaming sites, many of which sadly no longer exist.
07:31Perhaps the one we miss the most is Game Trailers, which Jeffrey Grotz and Brandon Jones founded in 2002.
07:37In addition to sharing Game Trailers, as its name implied, the site gained a following with its reviews, countdowns, and video podcasts like Invisible Walls.
07:46Under Viacom's ownership, Game Trailers had a presence beyond cyberspace, with Jeff Keighley hosting GTTV on Spike.
07:53Tonight on Game Trailers TV, we review Ubisoft's No More Heroes and Electronic Arts Burnout Paradise.
07:59Everything started to collapse after Defy Media acquired Game Trailers, leading to its closure in 2016.
08:04IGN bought Game Trailers, keeping its brand and video library alive through YouTube.
08:10For those still nostalgic for the original site, though, it's sadly game over.
08:14And if you guys want to see all that new footage of Portal 2 again in high definition, head on over right now to GameTrailers.com.
08:21Number 13, FlashPlayer.com.
08:24Almost everyone had it on their computer.
08:26It's what played some of the videos and animations on websites and how we played games online.
08:31It's also how unwanted programs got on our computer.
08:34Between the dawn of the 21st century and the rise of YouTube was a golden age of Flash animation.
08:40Many videos were shared on Newgrounds, which is still active despite the loss of Adobe Flash Player in 2020.
08:45There's a website called Newgrounds, which is actually still going, but it was like the YouTube of Flash.
08:49And there were all these surreal, strange cartoons.
08:52There were also alternative animation sharing sites, like FlashPlayer.com.
08:562000s kids surely have fond memories of watching videos from creators like Nox, Legendary Frog, and Super Flash Brothers.
09:04Some ongoing series even inspired merchandise, such as Neurotically Yours starring Foamy the Squirrel.
09:09It was also one of the sites that hosted Potter Puppet Pals, back when the series used Flash.
09:14If you look up FlashPlayer.com now, it'll direct you to IGN, with the original site long gone.
09:20Yet, many videos resurfaced on YouTube, now with much shorter loading times.
09:24And the Internet Archive, which is known for that way back machine, if you look up an old website and you want to find what it used to look like,
09:31they're trying to preserve some Flash animations.
09:33Number 12, Fractal Cow.
09:35Fractal Cow is primarily remembered for one area dedicated to the most evil character on television, Bert from Sesame Street.
09:43Got a minute?
09:44Oh, Ernie, what is it?
09:45Look here, Bert. I have two pieces of apple pie, Bert. Would you like a piece of apple pie?
09:49Oh, boy, what a yes, yes, please.
09:52Allow us to explain.
09:53Dino Ignacio, a student from the University of the Philippines, was looking to polish his digital art expertise.
09:58He decided to have some fun with it, launching Bert is Evil in 1997.
10:03The parody site linked Ernie's roommate to the JFK assassination, OJ Simpson's defense team, and a pre-911 Osama Bin Laden.
10:10The dark parody site gained a following, and even won a Webby for Best Weird Website.
10:15The site now only exists in archive form, but it remains a reminder of just how strange early Internet culture was,
10:21and how things would only get more bizarre from there.
10:23Well, I mean, if I had two pieces of pie, I'd offer you the big piece and take the small one for myself.
10:31Well, well, Bert, you have the small piece, Bert.
10:39Number 11. The Spot.
10:41Imagine Melrose Place, but in mid-90s website form.
10:45That's how many describe The Spot, which commercial director Scott Zarekin helped launch in 1995.
10:50Inspired by Zarekin's experiences in chat rooms, The Spot chronicled an episodic online story,
10:56often being cited as the first web series of its kind.
10:59Digital images like these and information files help fans follow the comings and goings of five people who live in a house in Santa Monica, California.
11:07Actors portrayed spotmates, who appeared in videos and photos that accompany diary entries.
11:12The site also made visitors part of the narrative, encouraging spot fans to send messages, occasionally influencing the writing staff.
11:20Users could even communicate with characters as if they were real.
11:23The Spot won a webby, although the series ended in 1997 amid financial difficulties,
11:27Zarekin's exit, and similar sites drawing traffic away.
11:31And to talk by computer with their favorite characters through electronic messages known as email.
11:36We are able to put things out there that television never could.
11:40There were multiple attempts to relaunch The Spot, but Zachern wasn't attached.
11:44Number 10. Cha-Cha.
11:47Before everyone had smartphones with internet access,
11:50you often had to wait until you got to your home computer or to a library to research your burning questions.
11:55Where did the word dude come from?
12:00It's thought to be of German origin.
12:01But Cha-Cha provided a pretty ingenious solution, allowing users to call or text a number with questions
12:07and receive answers from human researchers, known as guides.
12:11There was also a desktop version, which was useful if you weren't getting a straight answer from Google.
12:16But while Cha-Cha might have been useful in 2006, when it was first launched, it became less relevant as time went on.
12:23Thanks for using Cha-Cha's experimental mobile answer service.
12:26What is your question today?
12:28Eventually, the company started losing money and shedding employees until finally closing for good in December of 2016.
12:35Thanks for your question.
12:37Your answer will be sent to your phone as a text message in a few minutes.
12:40Number 9. Six Degrees.
12:43The term social media wasn't widespread until the 2000s,
12:46but SixDegrees.com showed the power of this concept back in 1997.
12:51This site was based on the idea of growing your personal network via the internet,
12:54a forecast of just how blurred the line between real life and internet life would eventually become.
13:00Based on the concept of all people being connected by Six Degrees of Separation,
13:04the site invited users to list everyone they knew and foster those same connections online.
13:09Its features were mainly limited to messaging and bulletin boards,
13:13and just three years after its launch, it shut down.
13:16Still, Six Degrees was still an important precursor to some of today's biggest social media platforms.
13:21So, what's the verdict?
13:24Do we think Kevin Bacon ever joined?
13:25Well, that's it.
13:27It's over.
13:28I'm cool.
13:29It's not going to last.
13:31In three months, nobody is going to be talking about the Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon.
13:34Number 8.
13:35Jenny Cam.
13:37With social media, it feels like we know far more about people and their personal lives than we ever wanted to.
13:42But in the 90s, the idea of getting to know a complete stranger was an intriguing novelty.
13:47Enter Jenny Cam, a website run by Jennifer Ringley, who started this life cast when she was a 19-year-old college student.
13:54Jenny Cam is www.jennycam.org, and I encourage everybody to go check it out.
13:59Millions tuned into Ringley's broadcasts, which included some explicit material,
14:04and she became something of a celebrity, appearing on talk shows like The Late Show with David Letterman.
14:09A change in PayPal policy ultimately caused Ridgely to shut down Jenny Cam at the end of 2003.
14:13She's since avoided the public eye, which includes no social media profiles.
14:18But she kept working with computers, and would later become a programmer.
14:22Number 7.
14:23Pets.com.
14:24Pets.com was one of the first e-commerce companies.
14:27We sold everything for pets from food to toys.
14:31If you watched TV in the late 90s, you undoubtedly saw commercials for Pets.com with their sock puppet mascot.
14:37While this enterprise specialized in pet supplies, their management quickly went to the dogs.
14:42Pets.com's revenue lagged far behind their spending, and they became one of the biggest cautionary tales of the dot-com bubble.
14:49The company was liquidated in November 2000, just two years after its launch.
14:53Pets.com is closing down.
14:56Or in dog years, 14 years after its launch.
14:59Chewy.com would later demonstrate that pet supply sites like this can be profitable and longstanding.
15:05They just need to be properly managed.
15:06Oh, no, baby.
15:10Please don't go.
15:12Number 6.
15:13Groove Shark.
15:14Before Spotify, Apple Music, and other services showed the profitability of music streaming, there was Groove Shark.
15:21This was a website that allowed users to upload and listen to their favorite songs.
15:25There was just one massive issue.
15:27Songs were being uploaded without the consent of their owners, meaning Groove Shark was named in numerous copyright infringement lawsuits.
15:34Apple, Android, and Facebook all removed the Groove Shark app in response, and it soon became apparent that Groove Shark would eventually have to stop swimming.
15:43A legal settlement in 2015 forced the site to close down for good.
15:47After just over nine years, the grooves were sadly over.
15:51Number 5.
15:52Google Answers.
15:53The primary function of Google is to provide answers, so it seems a little redundant to have another site where users submit questions.
16:01But, search engine technology wasn't quite as sophisticated as it is now back when Google Answers first launched in 2002.
16:08Contractors known as Google Answer Researchers, or GARs for short, would answer questions, and they didn't necessarily come cheap.
16:16Some answers could cost as much as $200, which is a high price to pay for information.
16:22The answers tended to be extensive, but the site's lifespan wasn't.
16:26The knowledge market shut down in 2006, but you can still comb through its archives.
16:31Number 4.
16:32Mega Upload.
16:36A website dedicated to uploading and sharing files is a great idea, but is one that can easily fall into iffy copyright territory.
16:44And that's what happened with Mega Upload, a file hosting service founded by entrepreneur Kim.com.
16:50For just under seven years, Mega Upload lets users share all types of files, and became one of the web's most popular sites, even inspiring a song.
16:59While the site claimed to take action against copyright infringement, it was ultimately a haven for digital piracy.
17:05In 2012, the U.S. Department of Justice shut it all down, and .com and other Mega Upload executives were arrested.
17:12Talk about a mega problem.
17:13They've been arrested on warrants relating to breach of copyright offenses in the United States.
17:20Number 3.
17:21Friendster.
17:22It might be lost to the sands of internet history, but there was a time when Friendster was the top social media site around.
17:29So, here's a place that suits your style.
17:32A place where you can express yourself.
17:34Granted, there wasn't a lot of competition when it started, but credit where credit is due.
17:38The site drew more than 115 million registered users after its 2003 launch, and, realizing the potential in social media, Google offered to buy the site for $30 million.
17:49Friendster's owners turned this down, which was viewed as a colossal miscalculation.
17:54As Facebook grew in popularity, Friendster found itself in a bind, switching its status to social gaming site.
18:00The site went defunct in 2015, and the company ended it for good three years later.
18:05Friends forever, but not Friendster forever.
18:08Well, it was called Friendster, and at its peak, it was a vibrant social network with more than 50 million members.
18:1450 million?
18:15That's right.
18:15But then, out of the blue, the civilization just ended.
18:19Number 2.
18:20GeoCities.
18:21If you used the internet in the 90s, you probably visited at least one GeoCities site.
18:27Heck, you probably made one yourself.
18:29GeoCities was web hosting for people who didn't know a thing about coding, but who wanted to make sites of their own.
18:34Web pages were categorized based on cities, such as Hollywood and Silicon Valley, which were dedicated to movies and acting.
18:42They didn't look great, and certainly not by today's standards, but they gave users a way to express themselves, as well as a practice web design.
18:49In 1999, Yahoo took ownership and brought about some unpopular changes.
18:55GeoCities' end came about in 2009, which many blamed on Yahoo's management.
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19:16Number 1.
19:17Club Penguin.
19:18Rated E for everyone.
19:19It might sound like a social spot for flightless birds, but Club Penguin was actually one of the most popular internet communities around.
19:26A massively multiplayer online game, or MMO, Club Penguin gave users and their penguin avatars a world of games and other activities to enjoy.
19:35The site proved so popular.
19:37Disney purchased it for $350 million in 2007.
19:41However, it wasn't without its critics.
19:43While the site was geared towards children, there were numerous complaints that not enough was done to keep its young users protected.
19:50Interest gradually declined, with many users getting their gaming fixes on smartphones.
19:55A Club Penguin app was released in 2013, but it wasn't enough, and in 2017, we waved a very sad flipper goodbye to the virtual world.
20:08Which defunct website did you regularly visit back in the day?
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