Wednesday, December 01, 2021

The Way We Were Wednesday - Getting Started Online

This was taken with my first decent digital camera, in Toronto.  I had only had the camera a few days when we left on trip to drive around Lake Erie, we went to Cleveland, Niagra, north to Toronto, back across on Ontario to Michigan, and then south past the west end of the lake at Toledo.  This was taken in the subway system in Toronto. 

I know this is an early photo because the file is labeled VT.  VT was Vitrual Tourist.  VT was an early online travel bulletin board. I discovered it when I was looking for tips on Christmas in Paris.  It allowed members (and membership was free) to build pages with photos and text about their travels.  I was so happy with what I had learned, that when we came home from Paris* I took the plunge and created pages for places we had traveled to.  This was a couple of years before a friend introduced me to blogging.  VT shut down several years ago. It struggled for a while trying to become an online travel agency, and with some advertising, but ultimately it failed.  The model today, might work with advertising revenue and user created content.  But then it would compete with the mega social media companies and probably be bought out for a billion to make it go away.  Maybe it was ahead of its time.  
 

* More about that trip in a couple of weeks. 

10 comments:

  1. Anonymous12/01/2021

    You've sent me down memory lane. Friend about buying a digital camera in the early 2000s: Two megapixels will be great. The photos it will take will be crystal clear. You'll never want anything better.

    Yes, many memories of websites past. Did you have a Geocities website? I know little of Los Angeles but I knew enough to choose a very gay address at West Hollywood.

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    1. I think my first was 3.2. I remember the name Geocities but I don' think I used it.

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  2. I remember Geocities, but never heard of Virtual Tourist. it sounds like something I could get lost in.

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  3. It does sound like it was ahead of its time.

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    1. Pioneers teach others how to make money

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