WebChat Broadcasting System: Difference between revisions

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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 became more frequent as its popularity grew. Such events attracted many celebrities such as [[Tom Clancy]], the celebrity cast of [[Star Trek]], bands [[Soundgarden]] and [[Metallica]], the former president of [[Public Broadcasting Service|PBS]] and [[NBC News]], [[Lawrence K. Grossman|Lawrence Grossman]], United States Senator [[Arlen Specter]], [[Intel]] CEO [[Andy Grove]] and feminist [[Gloria Steinem]].<ref name="1_million_accounts" /><ref>{{Cite press release | title=Internet Users Flock to WebChat Broadcasting System; Site Now the Largest Chatting Hub on the World Wide Web | ___location=Menlo Park, California | publisher=Business Wire, FindArticles | date=20 November 1995 | url=http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0EIN/is_1995_Nov_20/ai_17769738 | access-date=23 May 2020 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090912013719/http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0EIN/is_1995_Nov_20/ai_17769738 | archive-date=12 September 2009 | url-status=dead}}</ref>

===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=httphttps://articleswww.latimes.com/1998archives/la-xpm-1998-apr/-15/business/-fi-39335-story.html | access-date=23 May 2020 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200523111832/https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1998-apr-15-fi-39335-story.html | archive-date=23 May 2020 | url-status=live}}</ref>

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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==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 havehad been retained or recreated. The most noticeable differences arewere the lack of personal homepages and the chat rooms arewere not moderated. TheWith no prior announcement, the revived WBS community was closed without explanation during the summer of 2023 and has not reappeared.<ref name="classic-web.net" />

==See also==