Creative Web Destruction: Sites Go Away
from the remember-that dept
As we await the official shutdown of Geocities at the end of the month, Ivor Tossell is reminding everyone that today's internet hotspot -- Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, etc. -- may be completely gone in a decade's time. And, while it's good that sites come and go as the next big thing comes along, it does raise questions for those who are relying on these sites as some sort of archive of a life lived online. It's a good reminder of the importance of either being able to back up certain information -- or control it directly yourself.
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Filed Under: creative destruction, geocities, shut down
Companies: facebook, myspace, twitter, yahoo
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Sometimes items of today may seem like your entire world, but 10 years later, those same items are just a small piece of who you are today, if even that.
I am reminded of Al Bundy's line about his high school QB days and... does it really matter much today?
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Think instead of the first date with your spouse and the photo grabbed on a cell and posted to FB. You might not look at it every day but you'd probably miss it if FB lost it and you didnt have a backup...
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Granted, it may serve a historical purpose and may not actually have any real-world value, but its a record of the good and bad that one has done and if nothing else should serve as a source of pride (or lol rue).
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Jason Scott, that's who. And thank gods for him.
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Xoom? Remember Xoom? Come on guys, it was XOOM!
Wait, hold on.
Comcast just called and is on the line.
May need to revise this statement in a few weeks.
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Re: Xoom? Remember Xoom? Come on guys, it was XOOM!
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Re: Xoom? Remember Xoom? Come on guys, it was XOOM!
A Zucker/Ergen would be a better combination would be better than Zucker/Roberts. But as I look over a few 10K and 10qs, in a relatively cursory fashion, (there are a lot of them) my gut says a Zucker/Malone has two thumbs up over any Zucker/Roberts combination.
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Modern vs. Traditional
Our "data" isn't just composed of old reports, notes, and MP3s. For most, the most important part of their digital life is their pictures. In addition, blogs are the new journal entries (with a more public take on it)...
So if tomorrow Gmail, Flickr, Twitter, or GoDaddy were to fail - permanently, how would users cope? ...
I think it's going to come down to a need for legislation to mandate data retention - or at least users will need to demand it for a certain period before their data gets erased.
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Re: Modern vs. Traditional
That is just it. Dont most sites have a clause in their TOS that says whatever data you put on to their site, is their property to do with whatever they want to do with it?
Unless that data is copyrighted material, and then the site has the right to just delete it on or before the copyright holder's request to do so.
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Even if a company owns data I upload to its servers, it should be aware that one its users would rely on the company retaining that data for a reasonable period to that individual's detriment.
Also, I find it hard to believe that a court is likely to allow companies to shut down without some sort of reasonable notice to the users of their services/products.
The First Tech Bubble didn't result in the finding of a reasonable practice regarding customer notice and data retention; perhaps the second one will.
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Sudo make me a sammich
All was going good, but damn, I have to tell you something about the knife set. Cutco Knives, man. They are the shit. I've never been able to cut through a tomato or a sammich like that. I'm feeling a little inadequate here after looking online to get for myself.
I think I am going to have to marry her for her knives. Is there anything wrong with that? I guess I really want a capable woman who knows how to use these things and honestly, I am a little confused...
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Need exists for a central archive
http://www.cringely.com/2009/07/who-ya-gonna-call-app-busters/
To quote part of his post: "What we need is the digital equivalent of one of those envelopes characters sometimes leave in books and movies — an envelope inevitably labeled “to be opened in the event of my death.”
Participating organizations would store compressed and encrypted versions of their data with the Internet Archive, where they would be held in an inactive state but updated frequently. Then, in the event of that outfit’s death, the digital envelope would be opened, revealing a decryption key and enough application code to get a vanilla version of the original net app up and running. It would, as archives are intended to do, preserve the final state of the application as well as its final data."
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Yo
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Now, if the recording is being done by the feds or a corporation, I guess my level of caring is very high! But if my Facebook profile were deleted today, I wouldn't shed too many tears. I'd lose all the friend links I had set up. Oh no!
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Im sure thats the thought process for a lot of people who use/used those social services. Its the coolest thing since sliced white bread when they set it up, but as the years roll on and they grow, they realize its not as important/relevant as it was when they were younger and had to worry about every little piece of "info" in everyone of their friends lives.
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Dont Let Your Internet Life Disappear...
Another vulnerability is security, another is physical damage. Three months ago, the Authorize.net data center in Seattle had a small electrical fire but the data center was shutdown for 24 hours and customers could not access their files at all during that time. Google was down a couple of weeks ago for two or three hours one night - yes it's 2AM but I want my data!!
The smart thing to do is not worry about these things, by having all of your web files automatically backed up to a second or third location an inexpensive service like FilesAnywhere - these sites let you USE your online backed up files for other purposes also. So you get the peace of mind from having your files backed up - from Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn, Twitter, GeoCities, Google, or any other web service - plus you can use those files anytime from a network drive mapping, or by sharing links to the entire folder of files.
Of course, most people are careful and have a copy of their files at least on a local USB drive right? Hello! What happens when that certain someone at your house "accidentally" deletes your entire root folder on your USB drive, and by chance, your favorite web service closed last week where you had second copies of your files? This is when you will be glad to have automated backups setup to copy everything offsite to FilesAnywhere or a secure FTP site.
The idea is to have several secure copies, in different locations, to fully protect your digital life. If you already have an offsite backup provider, it's still the safest approach to have more than one. Even the offsite backup companies have lifespans. Look at Xdrive, Yahoo Briefcase, HP's online backup service - all have closed in the last year and without much warning.
Protect your data!! It will thank you later.
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mp3.com
It was the way unsigned artists got visibility. There were mp3.com charts and some artists made their names nationally by being on the top of the charts.
And then mp3.com came to the realization that it couldn't make any money and almost overnight said it was closing down. People had invested a fair amount of time on the site and then it was gone.
I've been online heavily since 1993. Everything comes and goes sooner or later. That's why I'm skeptical about the predictions for Twitter. It, too, will be replaced by something else.
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Re: mp3.com
I owned more music with mp3.com than I have since it closed down. I guess I should really say I "owned" the music, because once the site was gone, so were the songs.
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Great guy, a real game-changer. But he really did seem to work very hard at bringing it on himself.
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But who cares, Geocities was so useless when looking for anything, I am not sad to see it go. Forever any site that linked to it for some information or other got the inevitable, Geocities specific,page not found errors, pissed me off.
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