GeoCities, a Yahoo subsidiary, hosted millions of free websites that were mainly built from stock templates that allowed anyone to have a personal site for blogs and pictures before Blogger and other similar services were launched.

Earlier in the year, GeoCities stopped accepting new site registrations, although GeoCities members had the ability to modify their sites and save any relevant information from the cloud to a PC or notebook.

“Yahoo continuously evaluates and prioritizes our products and services in alignment with business goals and our continued commitment to deliver the best consumer and advertiser experiences,” a GeoCities spokesperson told the L.A. Times.  “The company's closing is “part of our ongoing effort to prioritize our portfolio of products and services in order to deliver the best products to consumers.”

Members of GeoCities who want to keep their site live will have the opportunity to do so by upgrading free membership up to a paid membership for $4.99.

Tribute sites dedicated to GeoCities are now popping up left and right on the internet, such as the GeoCities Archive Project.

Yahoo has greatly struggled in the past several years, with the company shutting almost 20 different services and products in less than 12 months.