Memories of YTryBe.com

YTryBe.com has been a ghost for a long time - it seems to have gone off the Web's radar screen sometime in 2002. The Internet Archive has a fairly good copy of the operational site here, although as is the case with many complex sites in its collection, the Archive's copy is badly broken enough to make you wonder what the original site actually looked like.

To the casual viewer, YTryBe.com is simply another oddly-named site aimed at teenagers; one of the markets obsessionally targeted by New Media enterpreneurs in the late 1990's. A typical example of its content, "I used to daydream about leading the carefree life of a girl who could use a blow-dryer without guilt," gives us a clear view of what it proferred in its prime.

But what makes YTryBe.com of more than passing historical interest does not reside in its HTML carcass, but in the fact that two Harvard graduates, David Patent and his wife, were behind it.

As noted in 2001 in the pages of Harvard's exceedingly smarmy magazine, the Crimson, "Companies everywhere are closing shop, that’s true, but Patent is enthusiastic about the chances of ytrybe.com’s survival because of a recent influx of cash, enough to tide him over for 'at least another eight months.' And of course, when that money runs out, one can hop on the next flight to Silicon Valley."

Of course, if you graduated from Harvard, you can always hop on another flight: it's one of the great benefits of being an Old Money heir.

Only losers -- meaning, of course, anyone in the world who didn't go to Harvard -- ride the bus to the Internet boneyard.