21–30 of 56 posts
I love this kind of internet archaeology. It's crazy to think how many sites like this have just been sitting untouched for years. What else is out there?
You like archeology? Ok, have fun here... http://borg.uu3.net/ldetweil/
How many people here didn’t realize that the dude who created the million dollar homepage went on to create the Calm app many years later? https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alex_Tew
I’m really curious what the original owner of the domain thought the value of spending $200 on that little ad was. Like nobody is going to see it in the sea of other ads, and backlinks weren’t a thing then. Why else would you buy it?
Come to think of it, MillionDollarHomepage could have offered "pixels owners" of dead businesses to resell their space while taking a cut.
But most lessee dead businesses would eventually lose track of their credentials, and in fact many of the people simply lost interest or even up and died. A system whereby a dead link or a parking page results in "property tax auctions" would have kept the ecosystem healthier by moving out the dead wood.
Milliondollarapp (yes, I'm plugging a personal project, but for the sake of discussion) includes both of these approaches. Unfortunately it's been 90% complete for 7 years, and could really use a collaborator or someone with a more photogenic backstory to market it.
What made Milliondollarhomepage a sensation was its founder was trying to raise money to go to university, and that soft spot helped him sell out in about a month. He caught lightning in a bottle and good on him, even if he never ended up going to university for that purpose.
I love this kind of internet archaeology. It's crazy to think how many sites like this have just been sitting untouched for years. What else is out there?
I’m really curious what the original owner of the domain thought the value of spending $200 on that little ad was. Like nobody is going to see it in the sea of other ads, and backlinks weren’t a thing then. Why else would you buy it?
I know exactly why. Back in the heyday of blogs, around 2010, I was SO fired up every day thinking today would be the day I'd strike it rich. I placed a very small ad featuring my blog's URL in the back pages of The New Yorker: it cost $500 or so. I figured you never know who might see it and visit. For perspective: at peak popularity back then I got about 10,000 visitors/15,000 page views DAILY. Nowadays I get an av…
Here’s another (newer) one inspired by the great: https://24HourHomepage.com
I’m really curious what the original owner of the domain thought the value of spending $200 on that little ad was. Like nobody is going to see it in the sea of other ads, and backlinks weren’t a thing then. Why else would you buy it?
The Million Dollar Homepage was a big deal back then. I remember seeing it on the news a bunch. It likely got a ton of traffic and every website was trying to capitalize on the hype.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I know exactly why. Back in the heyday of blogs, around 2010, I was SO fired up every day thinking today would be the day I'd strike it rich. I placed a very small ad featuring my blog's URL in the back pages of The New Yorker: it cost $500 or so. I figured you never know who might see it and visit. For perspective: at peak popularity back then I got about 10,000 visitors/15,000 page views DAILY. Nowadays I get an av…
What impact did the ad have?
Here’s another (newer) one inspired by the great: https://24HourHomepage.com
Good luck with the get $373,680 [1] richer scheme..
Edit: aha, uploading and overwriting someone's content is free, to have an overwrite-lock one has to pay for it... Well I guess you were expecting a gold rush, but with so little uptake people seem to be thinking "why worry, chances are my link won't get overridden, and if it does happen I can just overwrite someone else's."
[1] (864+1) x 864 / 2