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October 1, 1997
Although the World Wide Web is in perpetual flux, the one constant we can all count on is the existence of "Ghost Sites". These neglected, never-updated electronic Web phantoms provide a vital, and occasionally uncomfortable window into the Web's own recent past. Join us now for a sampling of some recently exhumed Web fossils: these truly are the sites that time forgot. The Prince of Wales Business Information It's certainly time to be kind to Prince Charles, but let's be brutally honest: his ability to neglect important things seems to know no bounds. This tepid, self-promotional site, launched in 1996 to serve as a cyber-springboard for a vague "Millenium Agenda for Business as Partners in Development", has never experienced a single update, and is so long in the tooth that it gives good will a bad name. 
Site is Dead, shows advanced Decay Mondo2000 A virtual museum of 90's Los Angeles Kitsch, this long-dead print zine was once Wired Magazine's only real stylistic competitor, and is now entering its second year of lifeless suspension in cyber-amber. LA-punk haircuts, the philosophy of Yoko Ono, and bandwidth-bursting JPEGs are all on display at this site, and I predict Mondo2000 will soon be considered a true retro classic, unless, of course, someone pulls the plug. If they do, it will deal the Early 1990's Style Revival movement a mortal blow.
Site is Stuffed, Embalmed, and Ready for Internet Museum AnnaLive (Anna Nicole Smith) A breathless announcement in late 1995 that Anna Nicole Smith was "going live on the Web" must have made Net testosterone levels jump for joy. The curvaceous Smith was even going to deign to make weekly visits to the site to chat with her legion of male admirers. More than a year later, however, all the air has gone out of this pneumatic site, Smith has moved on to greener offline pastures, and Net men are looking elsewhere for their excitement (possibly at Carpoint.Com).
Site is Dead, but Well-Preserved Internet Underground Nothing remains of this anorexic 'zine, which purported to cover the "dark side" of the Net - not even a DNS entry. An obscure and agonizingly unsuccessful attempt by trade giant Ziff-Davis to break into Wired's turf with something trendy and profitable, Internet Underground quickly became neither. Obviously sensing their own looming execution, IU's editors began a series of bizarre content experiments in the magazine's final months, which culminated in a groundbreaking report on Net Spam based entirely on the comments of Hormel meat packers.
Site is Stuffed, Embalmed, and Ready for Internet Museum Electric Minds Electric Minds - an ambitions attempt to make "Net community" pay for itself, is still afloat, but its founder, Howard Rhinegold, seems to have been tossed overboard. Well-heeled visitors with an urge to chat are instead greeted by the visage of one "Harry Pike, AKA Maddog" - who doesn't look like much of a conversationalist. No sign of Rhinegold's distinctive flashy clothes and toothy grin remain to give this fee-based schmoozefest and life at all.
Site is Dying in ICU The People on Delphi Delphi -- once a proud online service in pre-Web days -- is all but gone, but an early home page hosting site remains for historians to study. Like minnows darting among the bulkheads of a great wreck, many die-hard Delphians continue to keep their pages current, which might be inspiring if it weren't so sad.
Site is Dying in ICU The Site Can a cancelled cable TV show live on as a web site? Don't count on it. Friends, it's time to fire up your copy of Web Whacker and preserve this doomed site while it lasts - you won't see the likes of this convergence experiment again.
Site is Dying in ICU Independence Day Might it be time to declare your independence from last year's Hollywood hype? Sure, everyone in America saw ID4 last year, but is this film really a classic? Enough already, 20th Century Fox - I'm reporting this site to the Internet Bandwidth Conservation Society!
Site is Dead, but Well-Preserved Jingle All the Way The domain for last year's Christmas flop now hosts, of all things, a site devoted to another bygone movie: Broken Arrow. I suppose Hollywood can justify keeping promotional sites like this one around, to bump up interest in the Broken Arrow Video. But action movies seldom look better on the small screen - and this one really tanks on a 14-inch monitor.
Site is Dead, shows advanced Decay |
Ghost-o-Meter You're on the web a lot. You've seen many a dead site. You've forgotten our email address... and you don't feel like coming back here to get it. What do you do? Ghost-o-Meter (javascript required) The Ghost-o-Meter opens a small, movable window... if you've found a Ghost Site, fill in the blanks, fire it off, and go back to foolin' around. Its that easy. You can also use this form: What the ??! Well, this is all very interesting, but what the heck is Ghost Sites anyway? Why devote a live site to Dead Sites? If you're interested in this Ghost Sites thing, it is a project that I began in the summer of 1996 while I was working for Time-Warner's Pathfinder. Late in the evening of July 4th, while piloting a small craft across Long Island Sound, I had what only can be described as an epiphany. From out of the depths came a cruel vision of the World Wide Web. It wasn't a friendly place - an innocent place of community, commerce and chat. It was a great and utterly pitiless electronic ocean that swallowed up sites, careers, and venture capital like a ravenous killer whale. Great sites - sites like Mecklerweb and iGuide - were going down with all hands. Great fortunes were collapsing and proud content sites lay wrecked on the bottom. No one seemed to care. The future was a vast abyss - who would record these days of New Media folly, disaster and despair? Back on shore, but still haunted by this vision, I launched Ghost Sites as a modest attempt to document the great disappearing fleet of web sites sinking beneath the waves. This project briefly made me spectacularly famous, and then I was quickly, and completely forgotten. By March of 1997, Ghost Sites had succumbed to the same deadly entropy that had settled over the Internet, and became a crewless wreck itself. For six cruel months, it drifted like a despised garbage barge, broke its keel in a summer squall, and finally washed up on Geocities. On an icy November morning, Morbus boarded the wreck, inspected the damage, and offered the captain a safe harbor. The bilge pump was started, and the squealing, rusty hull lifted off the sands again. It soon arrived here - in the dark, unquiet waters of Disobey.Com. If you want to see the article that made me briefly famous, check out Ghosts in the Machine. I became so famous because of this article that there were women lining up to see me - I felt like Elvis! But then... the fall from grace... If you have a favorite rotting site that you'd like to mention, email me at Steve_Baldwin@hotmail.com. Ghost Sites has appeared in a number of places including Time Magazine, ZDNet, The Netly News and more. For a list of all those we know of, as well as links to online counterparts, click here. You can also take a look at the limited edition t-shirt we once offered. Previous Issues Text issues? Click here.
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