New podcast Web Masters features GeoCities creator David Bohnett
Host of the new podcast Web Masters, Aaron Dinin speaks to David Bohnett in the latest episode to discuss the creation of GeoCities.
GeoCities was one of the first social networks, invented before Facebook or even Myspace. It was the place where the public could share their GeoCities back in 1994, which at the time, was revolutionary.
Speaking about how his interest started, David said: “Ever since high school, I had a great interest in both business and a career in business, as well as computer science. And I was fortunate that in my high school, we had a teletype time-sharing terminal, where I learned basic programming language and could execute those programs on punch tape. So, that was really my first introduction to structured computer programming.”
David’s first introduction to the web was in 1993, but he had an interest in online services before that.
Soon after his first job, David set up his own internet-based business, Beverly Hills Internet. Together with his co-founder, John Rezner they set up simple websites for companies that wanted an internet presence.
David admits that he didn’t have a passion for what he was doing, so looked for something truly unique and that’s how GeoCities came about. He explains: “We gave people the tools to create their own webpages around these subjects because a lot of people have a lot to share about their passions. Maybe it’s books, maybe it’s music, maybe it’s fan pages.
“We organize this in a way that people felt a sense of community, because there were other people that were in the same virtual neighbourhood creating similar kinds of pages.”
After becoming a huge success, David sold the company to Yahoo in 1999, he says: “We did a phenomenally large deal that benefited quite a few people. And I’ve always been very grateful and appreciative.”
You can hear more about the GeoCities story in Web Masters, the new podcast which talks about technology with some of the biggest tech giants across the US and world. Its available to listen to here and on all popular platforms.