You'll go Yahoo for GeoCities
Written: May 16 '00 (Updated May 19 '00)
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Since I love building web page so much, you can guess I have tried my share of free web hosts. Yahoo! GeoCities, in my eyes, is in the top three that I would use. Once you sign up for Yahoo! GeoCities you get all the benefits that comes with both Yahoo! and GeoCities.
You get your email address with Yahoo!. All the chat rooms, actions, messenger, and games. As well as one of the best search engines to date. GeoCities offers the 15MB of web space, with an easy URL (Ex - http://www.geocites.com/YOURNAME. No long sub directory to remember like Angelfire has. You still get to place your self in a Neighborhood, so that others may be able to find your web page easier. Yahoo! GeoCities wraps everything up in a nice neat package for their users to be able to make a Professional page with out having to pull all your hair out doing so.
If you know nothing at all about web pages yet want to build a page that looks as if a professional did it for you, then the Yahoo! GeoCities Page Wizards could be the rout for you. All you have to do is answer a few questions and it does everything for you. You get to choose from a handful of templates to start out with. Once you choose the one you want, it starts the page builder. After you answer the handful of questions, it's done. In all it takes about 5-10minutes to complete.
After you complete the Yahoo! GeoCities Page Wizards, you can always go back and make changes as need. It will allow you to open it up with the Yahoo! GeoCities page builder and make changes in there. You also have to choose to open the page up with their Advanced HTML Editor to make changes.
The Yahoo! GeoCities page builder is great for those that know nothing about HTML. If you have ever used Homestead.com to build your personal page, then you will know and understand how to use Yahoo! GeoCities page builder. If you have not, it is quick and easy to follow. You do not need to know any HTML codes. Pretty much all you have to do is "Drag & Drop" to add any thing from text to pictures. You can resize pictures by clicking on the picture and just moving it to the size you would like. You can move anything on the page just by dragging it with your mouse button, as well as you can delete anything you wish simply by clicking once on the thing you want to delete and either hitting your backspace key or the delete button.
You can do pretty much any thing with your web page in the Yahoo! GeoCities page builder by using your mouse to do so. They also give you the option that if you wish to add your own HTML to your page with them, all you have to do is click the insert link and add it. They give you the option to also add different types of scripts, unlike a great deal of others. One bad thing about adding your own HTML is that it will not show up on the page you are editing. What will show up is a box where you have placed it. So the only way you will know how it looks is to click the preview button.
The builder it's self can take up to 3 minutes to load, which is better then when I used Homestead. Homestead would take sometimes over 5 minutes to load the builder. When you save the page, it saves quickly and right way gives you the option to view the page you just saved. Homestead on the other hand would take up to 30minutes at times to save and didn't ever give me the option to view after I had saved it.
When you use the Yahoo! GeoCities page builder it also give you around 18 different templates to use for setting up your web page. Different ones include an Advice Column, a My Pet Page, a Baby Pages, or even a My Diary page. If none of these fit your needs you can also choose the blank page and set things up as you see fit. Keep in mind though that even if you choose a template, you can take off or add anything you need as simple as a click of your mouse button.
The Advanced HTML Editor is for the more advanced users and is very close to Angelfire's Advanced Editor. If you know HTML this will more then likely be the way to go for you. You write all your own HTML and Edit it within the same box. You cannot view the changes you make on the page while you write the HTML. One thing they do have that all the others I have used so far do not have, is you can click on view and it will show you what the page looks like with out saving it, as well as Yahoo! GeoCities adds the HTML Editor to the bottom of the page. This is so you can look at the page and see what needs to be change, instead of going back and forth between windows. Remember that it doesn't show the changes as you make them. You'll have to click on preview again to see any changes made.
You have two different ways to upload files to the Yahoo! GeoCities servers. You can either use their EZ Upload or you can use your own FTP program. When using the "Ez Upload", you can upload no more then 5 different files at once. You do all this through your browser in a few easy steps. For those that are more advanced, you might find that using your FTP program is easier cause you can upload as many files as you need at once. You don't have to sit in front of your computer and wait for the first set of files to finish before you start to upload the next set.
If you have trouble with either forms of uploading, Yahoo! GeoCities walks you step by step in an easy to read format on different ways to correct the issue. Their help page is one of the best I have seen so far, when it comes to explaining how to do things or resolve issues with their site.
The Yahoo! GeoCities File Manager is set up pretty much just like the Tripod File Manager. It lists everything that is within your directory and gives you the option to what you want to do next. From within the File Manager you can edit your pages, Delete or rename any of them, or even move the page to a different directory if you choose too. If you wish to edit the pages, it gives you the option on how you want to edit it, either with the Advanced HTML Editor or the basic Editor. This you have to keep an eye on, cause from within the File Manager, it will open into the Advanced Editor if you are not watching. Keep in mind though that if you get into the Advanced Editor and do not wish to be in there, it gives you the option to go in the Basic Editor.
A lot of place will allow you to use Microsoft FrontPage as your HTML Editor but the thing a lot of servers do not provide is for their server to handle FrontPage Server Extensions. Some places like (My favorite) FreeSpeech.org or AOL (who I can't stand) cannot handle a lot of the different scripting that Microsoft uses in their Editor. Yahoo! GeoCities servers can handle the scripts as well as if you come across one that seems to not work on their server, all you have to do is contact them and they will get right on the problem.
If 15megabytes is just not enough for you, then they give you the option to get more. Now this will coast a little money, when I say little I mean little, but if you are happy with Yahoo! GeoCities, why move? For $2.50 will get you 5mb, which is about what most ISP charge for just 5MB of web pace. Here you are already getting 15MB free. So why not just add as much more you need at a very low price?
I used GeoCities long before they got together with Yahoo! and I really like the changes I have found with them. They are a lot easier to use and more user friendly. They also changed their banner so that it is not much of a pain like most of the rest. It's not popping up in your face on every page. Nor it is not taking up a whole lot of room by taking up a 1/3 at the bottom or top of you page cause they have added it as a frame. Which if any of you have used Xoom, you will know that they do this and it ends up showing up on EVERY page you have. If you have frames with them, this can be rather a pain in the backside cause it shows up on each page of the frame as well as the main page. So by the time you get done viewing a page from Xoom that has frames, it's nothing but their banner. Yahoo! GeoCities makes it nice and easy and just places it in the up right hand corner of your page. It doesn't take up any room at all and you also have the option to minimize it so that it just shows the name for Yahoo! GeoCities.
Why do I not rank them number one if I speak so highly of them? Well With FreeSpeech.org I have no banners and I get 25MB or space free, with the option to upgrade to 100MB for a sum amount each month. If I had to choose someone other then FreeSpeech whom would I choose? Well I would have to say Yahoo! GeoCities. It's great for people just starting out not knowing any HTML coding. At one time I would have said Angelfire over Yahoo! GeoCities, but that was the old GeoCities, not the new.
So if your out looking for a place to hold you webpage with out the charge, my first choice would be FreeSpeech.org but very close behind if Yahoo! GeoCities.
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
RainGdss
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Member: Tina Brooks
Location: Orlando, Florida
Reviews written: 66
Trusted by: 142 members
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