In about the year 2002 there were quite a few abandoned websites. 'Site under construction' was a pretty common message, or 'last updated (six months ago)'. For a small business on a limited budget, getting a website often involved someone's son who was 'good with computers'. A year later, the son had gone to uni or the novelty of creating webpages had worn off, and the business was left with half a website, no idea who the hosting was with and no access to the domain name.
A basic web presence is easier to create these days, no technical skills required, and perhaps that's why the web appears to be less littered with 'sites under construction' - or most likely Google just doesn't index them any more, so we come across them less often.
But there are plenty of new 'ghost towns' - the Twitter accounts, Facebook pages and blogs, started in good faith but abandoned for lack of time or fading enthusiasm.
There's something quite poignant about the Twitter pages in particular, drifting like the Marie Celeste, the last tweets suspended moments in time.
"Just sent off a large group of very happy guests. Busy breakfast service this morning."(March 2009)
"Driver cut from crash wreckage" (Oct 2009)
"April fools offer!! Buy 12 moroccanoil 100ml, and get free a Moroccanoil 200ml, a Moroccanoil product, a poster, flyers & bags" (March 2010).
What happened next? Is the guesthouse still in business? Has there been no news worth tweeting about over the last year? Was the April Fool promotion such a success that the hairdressers sold up and went to live in Morocco?
I suppose the moral of the tale is not to start something unless you can sustain it, at least if you're in business and don't want to give the impression you may have emigrated or gone bust.
Or perhaps for now, being the early 'wild west' days of the internet, it doesn't matter, and the important thing is to try out these new communication channels sooner rather than later. What do you think?
