Geocities is a free web page and hosting service that became immensely popular way back then... so popular that Yahoo! bought them in 1999.   It offered people a chance to own a part of online real estate in the form of a website instead of just being a passive internet surfer.

I remember all those long cryptic URLs that had everyone exchanging links and telling their friends to visit.   You had a URL with a virtual city name and a 4 digit address.   I had one too, but I just couldn't memorize my address and I may have got buried in my decade old e-mail signatures.

With the advent of social networks, cheaper web hosting and simply more alternatives to their free web service, Geocities is no longer accepting new registrations and existing users will have till the end of the year before Geocities will be declared a ghost town.  

Thanks for the memories Geocities.