Engineers working on the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) have successfully injected beams of particles into two sections of the vast machine.
An LHC spokesperson said this was the first time particle beams had been inside the LHC since it was shut down late in September 2008.
Scientists working on the giant particle accelerator described the success as "a milestone".
They plan to circulate a beam around the 27km-long tunnel in November.
The LHC was closed down shortly after its switch-on last year, when a magnet problem called a "quench" caused a tonne of liquid helium to leak into its tunnel.
This is a work of synchronisation
Gianluigi Arduini, Cern
Since then, engineers have been working to repair the damage. Recently, all eight sectors of the LHC were cooled to their operating temperature of 1.9 kelvin (-271C; -456F) - colder than deep space.
On 23 and 25 October, beams of protons and of lead ions were injected into the LHC ring, and successfully guided both clockwise and anti-clockwise through two of the eight sectors. Each sector is approximately 3.5km long.
The extreme cold allows the magnets inside the LHC, which align and accelerate the beam, to become "superconducting". This means they channel electric current with zero resistance and very little power loss.
Gianluigi Arduini, deputy head of hardware commissioning for the LHC, told BBC News the beam test showed that the collider's machinery was operating properly.
LHC tunnel (Cern/M.Brice)
The LHC's tunnel runs for 27km under the Franco-Swiss border
"This is a work of synchronisation," he said.
"The fast magnets must be synchronised to accelerate the beam and transfer it from one accelerator to the next and eventually to the LHC, which must be synchronised to accept it.
"This whole process happens within a few hundred picoseconds - one picosecond is a millionth of a millionth of a second."
The beams were injected at 450 billion electron volts, only a fraction of the energy that scientists will aim for when they attempt to collide two particle beams.
Two beams of particles will be fired down pipes running through the magnets - travelling in opposite directions at close to the speed of light.
Mr Arduini said: "The aim once the beam is circulating is to accelerate [it] up to 3.5 [trillion electron volts].
"But that will be in stages. We will first go to one, then 3.5... then from 2011 we're going to try to go to seven."
At allotted points around the tunnel, the proton beams cross paths, smashing into one another.
Scientists hope to see new particles in the debris of these collisions that could reveal insights into the "Big Bang" and the nature of the Universe.
Monday, October 26, 2009
Net set for 'language shake-up'
The internet is on the brink of the "biggest change" to its working "since it was invented 40 years ago", the net regulator Icann has said.
The body said it that it was finalising plans to introduce web addresses using non-Latin characters.
The proposal - initially approved in 2008 - would allow domain names written in Asian, Arabic or other scripts.
The body said if the final plans were approved on 30 October, it would accept the first applications by 16 November.
The first Internationalised Domain Names (IDNs) could be up and running by "mid 2010" said the president of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (Icann).
"Of the 1.6 billion internet users today worldwide, more than half use languages that have scripts that are not Latin-based," said Rod Beckstrom at the opening of Icann's conference in Seoul, South Korea.
"So this change is very much necessary for not only half the world's internet users today but more than half, probably, of the future users as the internet continues to spread."
Relaxed rules
Plans for IDNs were approved at a meeting in June 2008. However, testing of the system has been going on for much longer, said Peter Dengate Thrush, chairman of the board in charge of reviewing the change.
"You have to appreciate what a fantastically complicated technical feature this is," he said.
"What we have created is a different translation system."
The changes will be applied to the net's Domain Name System. This acts like a phone book, translating easily understood domain names such as bbc.co.uk into strings of computer readable numbers known as IP addresses.
The tweaks will allow this system to recognise and translate the non-Latin characters.
"We are confident that it works because we have been testing it for a couple of years," said Mr Dengate Thrush. "We're really ready to start rolling it out."
Some countries, such as China and Thailand, have already introduced workarounds that allow computer users to enter web addresses in their own language. However, these were not internationally approved and do not necessarily work on all computers.
The meeting in South Korea will also discuss its plans to introduce generic Top Level Domains (TLDs), such as .uk or .com.
Last year, the body voted to relax rules on TLDs meaning companies could turn brands into web addresses, while individuals could use their names.
Icann, set up by the US government, was founded in 1998 to oversee the development of the net.
Last month, after years of criticism, the US government eased its control over the non-profit body.
It signed a new agreement that gave Icann autonomy for the first time. The agreement came into effect on 1 October and puts it under the scrutiny of the global "internet community".
The body said it that it was finalising plans to introduce web addresses using non-Latin characters.
The proposal - initially approved in 2008 - would allow domain names written in Asian, Arabic or other scripts.
The body said if the final plans were approved on 30 October, it would accept the first applications by 16 November.
The first Internationalised Domain Names (IDNs) could be up and running by "mid 2010" said the president of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (Icann).
"Of the 1.6 billion internet users today worldwide, more than half use languages that have scripts that are not Latin-based," said Rod Beckstrom at the opening of Icann's conference in Seoul, South Korea.
"So this change is very much necessary for not only half the world's internet users today but more than half, probably, of the future users as the internet continues to spread."
Relaxed rules
Plans for IDNs were approved at a meeting in June 2008. However, testing of the system has been going on for much longer, said Peter Dengate Thrush, chairman of the board in charge of reviewing the change.
"You have to appreciate what a fantastically complicated technical feature this is," he said.
"What we have created is a different translation system."
The changes will be applied to the net's Domain Name System. This acts like a phone book, translating easily understood domain names such as bbc.co.uk into strings of computer readable numbers known as IP addresses.
The tweaks will allow this system to recognise and translate the non-Latin characters.
"We are confident that it works because we have been testing it for a couple of years," said Mr Dengate Thrush. "We're really ready to start rolling it out."
Some countries, such as China and Thailand, have already introduced workarounds that allow computer users to enter web addresses in their own language. However, these were not internationally approved and do not necessarily work on all computers.
The meeting in South Korea will also discuss its plans to introduce generic Top Level Domains (TLDs), such as .uk or .com.
Last year, the body voted to relax rules on TLDs meaning companies could turn brands into web addresses, while individuals could use their names.
Icann, set up by the US government, was founded in 1998 to oversee the development of the net.
Last month, after years of criticism, the US government eased its control over the non-profit body.
It signed a new agreement that gave Icann autonomy for the first time. The agreement came into effect on 1 October and puts it under the scrutiny of the global "internet community".
'Younger wife' for marital bliss
The secret to a happy marriage for men is choosing a wife who is smarter and at least five years younger than you, say UK experts.
These pairings are more likely to go the distance, particularly if neither has been divorced in the past, according to the Bath University team.
The findings predict a happy future for pop star Beyonce Knowles, 28, and rapper husband Jay-Z, 39.
The work is published in the European Journal of Operational Research.
The researchers studied interviews of more than 1,500 couples who were married or in a serious relationship.
Five years later, they followed up 1,000 of the couples to see which had lasted.
For better or worse
They found that if the wife was five or more years older than her husband, they were more than three times as likely to divorce than if they were the same age.
HAVE YOUR SAY
Not so long ago the husband had to be older than his wife in order to be able to support a family, but such criteria are not so relevant now women have been educated to be able to command good jobs, so I suggest the basis for a successful marriage should be tolerance
Marion Monahan, Bristol
Send us your comments
If the age gap is reversed, and the man is older than the woman, the odds of marital bliss are higher.
Add in a better education for the woman - Beyonce has her high school diploma, unlike husband Jay-Z - and the chances of lasting happiness improve further.
Those who have never divorced fare better too. But couples in which one member has been through a divorce in the past are less stable than those in which both members are divorcees.
Dr Emmanuel Fragniere and colleagues do say that men and women choose partners "on the basis of love, physical attraction, similarity of taste, beliefs and attitudes, and shared values."
But they say that using "objective factors" such as age, education and cultural origin "may help reduce divorce".
These pairings are more likely to go the distance, particularly if neither has been divorced in the past, according to the Bath University team.
The findings predict a happy future for pop star Beyonce Knowles, 28, and rapper husband Jay-Z, 39.
The work is published in the European Journal of Operational Research.
The researchers studied interviews of more than 1,500 couples who were married or in a serious relationship.
Five years later, they followed up 1,000 of the couples to see which had lasted.
For better or worse
They found that if the wife was five or more years older than her husband, they were more than three times as likely to divorce than if they were the same age.
HAVE YOUR SAY
Not so long ago the husband had to be older than his wife in order to be able to support a family, but such criteria are not so relevant now women have been educated to be able to command good jobs, so I suggest the basis for a successful marriage should be tolerance
Marion Monahan, Bristol
Send us your comments
If the age gap is reversed, and the man is older than the woman, the odds of marital bliss are higher.
Add in a better education for the woman - Beyonce has her high school diploma, unlike husband Jay-Z - and the chances of lasting happiness improve further.
Those who have never divorced fare better too. But couples in which one member has been through a divorce in the past are less stable than those in which both members are divorcees.
Dr Emmanuel Fragniere and colleagues do say that men and women choose partners "on the basis of love, physical attraction, similarity of taste, beliefs and attitudes, and shared values."
But they say that using "objective factors" such as age, education and cultural origin "may help reduce divorce".
Castro's sister 'spied for CIA'
A sister of Cuba's former long-time leader, Fidel Castro, has admitted spying for the CIA in the 1960s.
Juanita Castro, who now lives in Miami, said she had gathered sensitive information for the US for three years.
In her memoirs, she said she had fallen out with Fidel and her other brother Raul - Cuba's current president - over the killing of their opponents.
Ms Castro, 76, said she had helped to warn and hide Cuban dissidents before finally fleeing the island in 1964.
There has been no immediate reaction from the US or Cuban governments.
'Donna'
In her memoirs - Fidel and Raul, My Brothers, the Secret History - Ms Castro says she was recruited by the Central Intelligence Agency in Havana two years after the 1959 revolution brought Fidel Castro to power.
I didn't betray him. He betrayed me
Juanita Castro
She agreed to help because she had become disenchanted when Fidel abandoned the nationalist democratic revolution he promised and instead imposed a one-party Marxist state "simply out of the need to hold power", she said.
"Did I feel remorse about betraying Fidel by agreeing to meet with his enemies? No, for one simple reason: I didn't betray him. He betrayed me," she wrote.
"He betrayed the thousands of us who suffered and fought for the revolution that he had offered, one that was generous and just and would bring peace and democracy to Cuba, and which, as he himself had promised, would be as 'Cuban as palm trees'," she wrote.
Ms Castro said that at a meeting with a CIA officer called "Enrique" at a hotel in Mexico City in 1961, she was given the codename "Donna" and codebooks so she could receive instructions.
She agreed on the condition that she received no money and was not asked to participate in any violent acts against the Cuban government.
She would help people persecuted by the Cuban secret police escape capture, imprisonment and possible execution, often by sheltering them at the home of her mother, Lina Ruz Gonzalez, she added.
Ms Castro fled Cuba a year after her mother died, believing she would no longer be protected from the attention of the secret police, and settled in Miami, where she ran a pharmacy until 2007. Raul helped her get a visa to leave.
Fidel relinquished power to Raul in February 2008. He has not been seen in public since falling ill in July 2006.
Juanita Castro, who now lives in Miami, said she had gathered sensitive information for the US for three years.
In her memoirs, she said she had fallen out with Fidel and her other brother Raul - Cuba's current president - over the killing of their opponents.
Ms Castro, 76, said she had helped to warn and hide Cuban dissidents before finally fleeing the island in 1964.
There has been no immediate reaction from the US or Cuban governments.
'Donna'
In her memoirs - Fidel and Raul, My Brothers, the Secret History - Ms Castro says she was recruited by the Central Intelligence Agency in Havana two years after the 1959 revolution brought Fidel Castro to power.
I didn't betray him. He betrayed me
Juanita Castro
She agreed to help because she had become disenchanted when Fidel abandoned the nationalist democratic revolution he promised and instead imposed a one-party Marxist state "simply out of the need to hold power", she said.
"Did I feel remorse about betraying Fidel by agreeing to meet with his enemies? No, for one simple reason: I didn't betray him. He betrayed me," she wrote.
"He betrayed the thousands of us who suffered and fought for the revolution that he had offered, one that was generous and just and would bring peace and democracy to Cuba, and which, as he himself had promised, would be as 'Cuban as palm trees'," she wrote.
Ms Castro said that at a meeting with a CIA officer called "Enrique" at a hotel in Mexico City in 1961, she was given the codename "Donna" and codebooks so she could receive instructions.
She agreed on the condition that she received no money and was not asked to participate in any violent acts against the Cuban government.
She would help people persecuted by the Cuban secret police escape capture, imprisonment and possible execution, often by sheltering them at the home of her mother, Lina Ruz Gonzalez, she added.
Ms Castro fled Cuba a year after her mother died, believing she would no longer be protected from the attention of the secret police, and settled in Miami, where she ran a pharmacy until 2007. Raul helped her get a visa to leave.
Fidel relinquished power to Raul in February 2008. He has not been seen in public since falling ill in July 2006.
McDonald's pulls out of Iceland
McDonald's is to close its business in Iceland because the country's financial crisis has made it too expensive to operate its franchise.
The fast food giant said its three outlets in the country would shut - and that it had no plans to return.
Besides the economy, McDonald's blamed the "unique operational complexity" of doing business in an isolated nation with a population of just 300,000.
Iceland's first McDonald's restaurant opened in 1993.
'No sense'
For a kilo of onion, imported from Germany, I'm paying the equivalent of a bottle of good whiskey
Jon Gardar Ogmundsson
McDonald's Icelandic franchisee
The franchises are run by a firm called Lyst, with owner Jon Gardar Ogmundsson saying the decision was "not taken lightly".
He said that the restaurants imported the goods from Germany, but that costs had almost doubled, with the falling krona making imports prohibitively expensive.
Mr Ogmundsson said the restaurants had "never been this busy before... but at the same time profits have never been lower".
"It just makes no sense. For a kilo of onion, imported from Germany, I'm paying the equivalent of a bottle of good whisky," he added.
He now plans to run the restaurants under another name so that he is able to buy cheaper Icelandic products.
Iceland's banks collapsed at the height of the global credit crisis - wrecking the country's economy and forcing it to rely on as $10bn (£6.1bn) international aid package.
The fast food giant said its three outlets in the country would shut - and that it had no plans to return.
Besides the economy, McDonald's blamed the "unique operational complexity" of doing business in an isolated nation with a population of just 300,000.
Iceland's first McDonald's restaurant opened in 1993.
'No sense'
For a kilo of onion, imported from Germany, I'm paying the equivalent of a bottle of good whiskey
Jon Gardar Ogmundsson
McDonald's Icelandic franchisee
The franchises are run by a firm called Lyst, with owner Jon Gardar Ogmundsson saying the decision was "not taken lightly".
He said that the restaurants imported the goods from Germany, but that costs had almost doubled, with the falling krona making imports prohibitively expensive.
Mr Ogmundsson said the restaurants had "never been this busy before... but at the same time profits have never been lower".
"It just makes no sense. For a kilo of onion, imported from Germany, I'm paying the equivalent of a bottle of good whisky," he added.
He now plans to run the restaurants under another name so that he is able to buy cheaper Icelandic products.
Iceland's banks collapsed at the height of the global credit crisis - wrecking the country's economy and forcing it to rely on as $10bn (£6.1bn) international aid package.
Afghan rivals row over poll chief
Afghan rivals row over poll chief
Hamid Karzai andAbdullah
Hamid Karzai and Abdullah Abdullah have ruled out a power-sharing deal
Afghan President Hamid Karzai has rejected a call by rival presidential candidate Abdullah Abdullah to sack the head of the Afghan election commission.
Mr Abdullah made his demand ahead of a 7 November run-off, after a UN-backed panel threw out first-round votes.
He said commission chief Azizullah Lodin had "no credibility", but Mr Karzai said he had done nothing wrong.
The row came as US President Barack Obama pledged not to "rush" a decision about whether to send extra US troops.
Mr Obama held a sixth meeting with his national security team on Monday to discuss the future US strategy in Afghanistan.
He then spoke at a military base in Florida, telling troops he would "never hesitate" to use force if necessary.
But, he added: "I will never rush the solemn decision of sending you into harm's way."
'Legal duties'
In Afghanistan the incumbent president dismissed Mr Abdullah's allegations, saying that sudden upheaval could upset the voting process.
"The changes would not be helpful to the elections and the country," Hamid Karzai said.
Afghan employees from the Independent Election Commission (IEC) load ballot boxes into a truck to be sent to provinces, in Kabul on October 22, 2009
A UN-backed panel found evidence of widespread fraud in the first round
Mr Abdullah and his aides insist the IEC is dominated by officials loyal to Mr Karzai, and the challenger has called for some to be removed from their posts.
However, Mr Karzai, who appointed the commissioners, said they "have just done their legal duties".
There has been no statement from the IEC or Mr Lodin as yet.
Earlier, Mr Abdullah and Hamid Karzai earlier ruled out a power-sharing deal.
Both candidates told US media they were committed to another poll.
Speaking to CNN, Mr Karzai - who bowed to international pressure to hold a run-off - said a deal would be "an insult to democracy".
List of conditions
Mr Abdullah made his demand for Mr Lodin's dismissal during a news conference at which he outlined a list of conditions for a fair second round.
KARZAI V ABDULLAH
Hamid Karzai:
First popularly elected president of Afghanistan
Opposed Soviet occupation in 1980s
Critics say he has done little to rein in corruption
Abdullah Abdullah:
Tajik-Pashtun, doctor by profession
Senior Northern Alliance leader during Taliban rule
Removed from Karzai's cabinet in 2006
Profile: Hamid Karzai
Profile: Abdullah Abdullah
"He has left no credibility for the institution," Mr Abdullah was quoted by the AFP news agency as saying.
"What's the solution? Another commissioner from the same commission should take his position," he said.
After the 20 August poll, initial results suggested that Mr Karzai had received 55% of the vote, and former foreign minister Mr Abdullah 28%.
But the UN-backed Electoral Complaints Commission (ECC) deducted hundreds of thousands of votes from the main candidates.
Its investigation focused on 600 of the most serious complaints, and a sample audit of suspect votes at 3,377 polling stations. At 210 polling stations all the ballots were invalidated.
This meant Mr Karzai's total was reduced to below the 50% plus one vote threshold for outright victory, indicating a second round was needed.
The panel also recommended replacing thousands of officials and scrapping polling stations where the fraud was worst.
Officials involved in flawed polling are being removed ahead of the run-off, the UN has said.
But there are still concerns about the ability of the run-off to avoid mistakes made in the first round, correspondents say.
Campaigning officially began over the weekend but the Taliban threatened to launch a fresh wave of violence and urged people not to vote in what they called an "American process".
Hamid Karzai andAbdullah
Hamid Karzai and Abdullah Abdullah have ruled out a power-sharing deal
Afghan President Hamid Karzai has rejected a call by rival presidential candidate Abdullah Abdullah to sack the head of the Afghan election commission.
Mr Abdullah made his demand ahead of a 7 November run-off, after a UN-backed panel threw out first-round votes.
He said commission chief Azizullah Lodin had "no credibility", but Mr Karzai said he had done nothing wrong.
The row came as US President Barack Obama pledged not to "rush" a decision about whether to send extra US troops.
Mr Obama held a sixth meeting with his national security team on Monday to discuss the future US strategy in Afghanistan.
He then spoke at a military base in Florida, telling troops he would "never hesitate" to use force if necessary.
But, he added: "I will never rush the solemn decision of sending you into harm's way."
'Legal duties'
In Afghanistan the incumbent president dismissed Mr Abdullah's allegations, saying that sudden upheaval could upset the voting process.
"The changes would not be helpful to the elections and the country," Hamid Karzai said.
Afghan employees from the Independent Election Commission (IEC) load ballot boxes into a truck to be sent to provinces, in Kabul on October 22, 2009
A UN-backed panel found evidence of widespread fraud in the first round
Mr Abdullah and his aides insist the IEC is dominated by officials loyal to Mr Karzai, and the challenger has called for some to be removed from their posts.
However, Mr Karzai, who appointed the commissioners, said they "have just done their legal duties".
There has been no statement from the IEC or Mr Lodin as yet.
Earlier, Mr Abdullah and Hamid Karzai earlier ruled out a power-sharing deal.
Both candidates told US media they were committed to another poll.
Speaking to CNN, Mr Karzai - who bowed to international pressure to hold a run-off - said a deal would be "an insult to democracy".
List of conditions
Mr Abdullah made his demand for Mr Lodin's dismissal during a news conference at which he outlined a list of conditions for a fair second round.
KARZAI V ABDULLAH
Hamid Karzai:
First popularly elected president of Afghanistan
Opposed Soviet occupation in 1980s
Critics say he has done little to rein in corruption
Abdullah Abdullah:
Tajik-Pashtun, doctor by profession
Senior Northern Alliance leader during Taliban rule
Removed from Karzai's cabinet in 2006
Profile: Hamid Karzai
Profile: Abdullah Abdullah
"He has left no credibility for the institution," Mr Abdullah was quoted by the AFP news agency as saying.
"What's the solution? Another commissioner from the same commission should take his position," he said.
After the 20 August poll, initial results suggested that Mr Karzai had received 55% of the vote, and former foreign minister Mr Abdullah 28%.
But the UN-backed Electoral Complaints Commission (ECC) deducted hundreds of thousands of votes from the main candidates.
Its investigation focused on 600 of the most serious complaints, and a sample audit of suspect votes at 3,377 polling stations. At 210 polling stations all the ballots were invalidated.
This meant Mr Karzai's total was reduced to below the 50% plus one vote threshold for outright victory, indicating a second round was needed.
The panel also recommended replacing thousands of officials and scrapping polling stations where the fraud was worst.
Officials involved in flawed polling are being removed ahead of the run-off, the UN has said.
But there are still concerns about the ability of the run-off to avoid mistakes made in the first round, correspondents say.
Campaigning officially began over the weekend but the Taliban threatened to launch a fresh wave of violence and urged people not to vote in what they called an "American process".
Say farewell to GeoCities, the vintage Web-hosting site
(CNN) -- The flashing banner ads, questionable color schemes and omnipresent "Under Construction" signs of GeoCities are no more.
The personal Web-hosting site, launched in 1995 and owned by Yahoo Inc. since 1999, was to be shut down by Tuesday.
It's a move that will scrub from the Web a significant, albeit dated, piece of Internet history and the pages where millions first tried their hands at coding and designing.
GeoCities, in its heyday, was an online hub for Internet communities, connecting related pages through "web rings" that predated the massive footprints of MySpace and Facebook by nearly a decade.
For some, creating guest books, visitor counters and streaming HTML marquee tags on GeoCities was a stepping-off point into a new digital age.
Carrie Musgrave, a professional photographer from Toronto, said she got two Web-design jobs by showing off her GeoCities creation: a U2 fan page she coded by hand in her college library in 1998.
"There were a bunch of people who applied and they all had computer science degrees," she said of one of her interviews. "I showed them my U2 page and ended up getting the job."
She said she didn't think about the site for years, but after hearing news of GeoCities' pending closure, was surprised to find that her page, where she once got messages from fans thinking it was the band's official site, still existed.
"It's humorous somewhat to go back and look at it -- it's so simple compared to what Web sites are now," she said. "It almost seems innocent."
As the Web evolved, visits to the largely stagnant GeoCities declined sharply and had continued to fall in the months since April, when Yahoo announced the site would be closed.
In September, GeoCities pages had about 10.3 million unique users, according to analysts comScore Inc. That was a 16 percent drop from the 12.1 million they'd seen just a year earlier.
GeoCities was the third most-visited site on the Web in December 1998, behind AOL and Yahoo!, with 19 million unique visitors, according to a CNNMoney report.
In a message Monday on the GeoCities site, Yahoo urged users to try the company's pay Web-hosting service.
In a written statement, a spokeswoman said that Yahoo decided "after careful consideration" to shut down the site.
"We have enjoyed hosting Web sites created by Yahoo! users all over the world, and we're proud of the community that has been built," the statement said. "Yahoo! discontinued GeoCities on October 26, 2009, as part of our ongoing effort to prioritize our portfolio of products and services in order to deliver the best products to consumers."
The statement noted that other Yahoo features, including Yahoo! 360, My Web and Yahoo! Briefcase, have also been closed recently.
"We plan to share details of further changes with people who use our products in the months ahead," the statement said.
Yahoo will not be archiving user pages and has been encouraging GeoCities users to download content to their computers if they want to rebuild them on another site.
The online message notes that the Internet Archive, a nonprofit group trying to document as much of the public Web as possible, was working to record as many GeoCities pages as it could before the site went down.
While many Internet users have long abandoned GeoCities, the Web was filled with nostalgia on Monday. "RIP GeoCities" was a trending topic on Twitter, where one user summed up his feelings in a sub-140-word blast.
"If you're making fun of GeoCities dying," he wrote, "you're too young to understand."
The personal Web-hosting site, launched in 1995 and owned by Yahoo Inc. since 1999, was to be shut down by Tuesday.
It's a move that will scrub from the Web a significant, albeit dated, piece of Internet history and the pages where millions first tried their hands at coding and designing.
GeoCities, in its heyday, was an online hub for Internet communities, connecting related pages through "web rings" that predated the massive footprints of MySpace and Facebook by nearly a decade.
For some, creating guest books, visitor counters and streaming HTML marquee tags on GeoCities was a stepping-off point into a new digital age.
Carrie Musgrave, a professional photographer from Toronto, said she got two Web-design jobs by showing off her GeoCities creation: a U2 fan page she coded by hand in her college library in 1998.
"There were a bunch of people who applied and they all had computer science degrees," she said of one of her interviews. "I showed them my U2 page and ended up getting the job."
She said she didn't think about the site for years, but after hearing news of GeoCities' pending closure, was surprised to find that her page, where she once got messages from fans thinking it was the band's official site, still existed.
"It's humorous somewhat to go back and look at it -- it's so simple compared to what Web sites are now," she said. "It almost seems innocent."
As the Web evolved, visits to the largely stagnant GeoCities declined sharply and had continued to fall in the months since April, when Yahoo announced the site would be closed.
In September, GeoCities pages had about 10.3 million unique users, according to analysts comScore Inc. That was a 16 percent drop from the 12.1 million they'd seen just a year earlier.
GeoCities was the third most-visited site on the Web in December 1998, behind AOL and Yahoo!, with 19 million unique visitors, according to a CNNMoney report.
In a message Monday on the GeoCities site, Yahoo urged users to try the company's pay Web-hosting service.
In a written statement, a spokeswoman said that Yahoo decided "after careful consideration" to shut down the site.
"We have enjoyed hosting Web sites created by Yahoo! users all over the world, and we're proud of the community that has been built," the statement said. "Yahoo! discontinued GeoCities on October 26, 2009, as part of our ongoing effort to prioritize our portfolio of products and services in order to deliver the best products to consumers."
The statement noted that other Yahoo features, including Yahoo! 360, My Web and Yahoo! Briefcase, have also been closed recently.
"We plan to share details of further changes with people who use our products in the months ahead," the statement said.
Yahoo will not be archiving user pages and has been encouraging GeoCities users to download content to their computers if they want to rebuild them on another site.
The online message notes that the Internet Archive, a nonprofit group trying to document as much of the public Web as possible, was working to record as many GeoCities pages as it could before the site went down.
While many Internet users have long abandoned GeoCities, the Web was filled with nostalgia on Monday. "RIP GeoCities" was a trending topic on Twitter, where one user summed up his feelings in a sub-140-word blast.
"If you're making fun of GeoCities dying," he wrote, "you're too young to understand."
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