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'''WebChat Broadcasting System''', or '''WBS''' for short, is a [[virtual community]] created during the 1990s. Supported by online advertising, it was one of few services at the time to offer free integrated community services including chat rooms, message boards, and free personal web pages. Extremely popular during the mid to late 1990s in the era prior to the [[Dot-com bubble|Dot-com bust]], WBS was at that time the largest and best-known social media website
==Features==
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===Founding===
WBS was founded as the Internet Roundtable Society in 1990 by Michael J. Fremont and Wendie Bernstein Lash in [[Menlo Park, California]].<ref>{{Cite web | title=Corporate Backgrounder | url=http://wbs.net/wbs/press/press.html | date=10 December 1997 | website=WebChat Broadcasting System | access-date=6 May 2009 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/19971210161302/http://wbs.net/wbs/press/press.html | archive-date=10 December 1997 | url-status=dead}}</ref> It began as an "[[edutainment]]" company featuring such content as live Internet broadcasts of interviews with prominent individuals in science, technology
===Growth===
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[[Internet Relay Chat|IRC]] had existed as a dedicated chatting network but was mostly used by seasoned Internet users. Chat websites capitalized on the growing base of Internet general users by providing a simpler, more attractive chatting interface. Chatting became focused on community and socialization.<ref name="yahoo" />
In February 1997, WBS reached a milestone of 1 million registered users, accruing 4,000 new registered users and 5.5 million page views every day. Registrations were not confirmed. At this point, it was featuring 200 individual affinity groups. Within a week of the launch of a new feature to allow members to create their own home pages, over 15,000 members had begun using it.<ref name="1_million_accounts">{{Cite press release | url=http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0EIN/is_1997_Feb_3/ai_19082095/ | title=WebChat Broadcasting System hits 1 million registered users | ___location=Menlo Park, California | publisher=[[Business Wire]], [[FindArticles]] | date=3 February 1997 | access-date=28 November 2018 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060619111447/http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0EIN/is_1997_Feb_3/ai_19082095/ | archive-date=19 June 2006 | url-status=dead}}</ref>
In June 1997, WBS hit 1.5 million registered users and had 7 million daily page views with over 200 rooms.<ref name="business_journal">{{Cite news | first=Lorna | last=Fernandes | title=Techweek - WebChat serves 1.5 million | work=Silicon Valley/San Jose Business Journal | date=20 June 1997 | url=http://www.bizjournals.com/sanjose/stories/1997/06/23/newscolumn2.html | access-date=19 August 2009 | archive-url=https://archive.today/20200523110005/http://www.bizjournals.com/sanjose/stories/1997/06/23/newscolumn2.html#selection-417.0-417.26 | archive-date=23 May 2020 | url-status=dead}}</ref>
WBS frequently hosted real-time multimedia programming events, which
===Rise of instant messaging===
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===Infoseek buyout and demise===
Infoseek bought out WBS for approximately $6.7 million, or about 350,000 shares of Infoseek stock in April 1998. At the time WBS had 2.7 million users.<ref name="la_times">{{Cite news | title=Infoseek to Buy WebChat Broadcasting | work=[[Los Angeles Times]] | publisher=[[Reuters]] | date=15 April 1998 | url=
WBS daily page views were down to 5 million in April, 1998.<ref name="infoseek_losses">{{Cite news | title=Infoseek Pares Its Losses | work=[[Wired (magazine)|Wired]] | date=23 April 1998 | url=https://www.wired.com/1998/04/infoseek-pares-its-losses/ | access-date=23 May 2020 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090912022907/https://www.wired.com/techbiz/media/news/1998/04/11889 | archive-date=12 September 2009 | url-status=live}}</ref>
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When Infoseek acquired WBS there had been several web portals that added chat as a service. [[Lycos]] had bought the [[Tripod.com|Tripod]] community in February 1998 and Yahoo had added a deal with [[GeoCities]] in January 1998. There was strong competition between the web portals to match each other's services. WBS, at the time of the Infoseek acquisition, had 2.7 million registered users. This total was more than the membership of Tripod and GeoCities combined. WBS had only 350,000 personal homepages at the time. Infoseek's three main competitors at the time were Lycos, Yahoo, and [[Excite (web portal)|Excite]].<ref>{{Cite web | first=Joe | last=Nickell | title=Web Portals Play Leapfrog | work=Wired | date=17 April 1998 | url=https://www.wired.com/1998/04/web-portals-play-leapfrog/ | access-date=19 August 2009 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090912023359/https://www.wired.com/techbiz/media/news/1998/04/11744 | archive-date=12 September 2009 | url-status=live}}</ref>
In 1998, Infoseek was purchased by the [[Go Network]]. On September 15, 1999, WBS was shut down and many of the more popular rooms were transferred to Go's Java-based chat system. All that was left for the members at that time was this simple message: "Go.Com has decided to close down WBS and move its most popular rooms to the chat rooms at Go.Com. Your home pages will still be viewable for an undetermined amount of time. Thank you for supporting WBS during its existence." By the Spring of 2000, all WBS home pages had been deleted. Go.com abandoned chat entirely in 2001.
==Migration==
After its demise, many patrons of WBS migrated to other browser-based chat sites where some of the general topic rooms were recreated. Notable sites created in the wake of WBS' closure included bigbob.com and mywbs.com, both of which were created by former WBS chatters, utilizing a similar browser-based chat system. It is likely that many WBS
Martin Foster developed software that offered several of the features of the original WBS and IFC that had gained popularity. This code has been used in developing numerous chat sites which have attracted many former patrons of the original WBS, especially those who frequented the roleplaying rooms. It was originally developed to power Ethereal Realms, but the site now merely hosts the software for use on other sites.
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==2009 revival==
In July 2009, classic-wbs.net, a revival of WBS and virtually identical to the original community, was launched; most of the original chat rooms and features
==See also==
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