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Dana Reyes
Dana covers the dot-com era: the companies, the deals and the websites that shaped the early internet, and what actually happened to them after the headlines moved on. Dana Reyes is a pen name; 404 Memory Found publishes no photos or personal details of its writers.
86 posts by Dana Reyes
- Is SkyMall Still Around in 2026? Yes, Online OnlySkyMall is still around in 2026 as an online store. C&A Marketing bought the bankrupt in-flight catalog at auction in 2015 for $1.9 million.
- Why Montgomery Ward Failed and Who Owns It NowMontgomery Ward closed all 250 stores in 2001 after 128 years. Colony Brands has owned the name since 2008 and sells it online at wards.com.
- Is Homestar Runner Still Updating? The Site in 2026Homestar Runner is still updating in 2026, just not weekly. The site launched January 1, 2000 and now runs on Ruffle instead of Flash.
- Is Tower Records Still Around? Online and in JapanTower Records is still around as an online store and a chain in Japan, but all 89 US stores closed after the 2006 bankruptcy auction.
- Who Owns eToys.com Now? Toys R Us Bought the NameToys R Us has owned eToys.com since February 2009, paying a reported $2.15 million. The original eToys died in 2001, two years after a $76 IPO pop.
- Broadcast.com: The $5.7 Billion Site Yahoo Shut DownYahoo bought Broadcast.com for $5.7 billion in 1999 and closed the service by 2002. The company had booked $22.4 million of revenue in 1998.
- Is Angelfire Still Online? Lycos Closed It in 2026Angelfire is not still online. Lycos took the free web host down on April 24, 2026, after a January outage and 30 days of notice.
- Why Discovery Zone Failed and What's Left in 2026Discovery Zone failed after two bankruptcies and closed for good by the end of 2001. One unaffiliated center still uses the name in 2026.
- How Many Rainforest Cafes Are Left? 16 in the USRainforest Cafe is down to 16 US restaurants in 11 states in 2026, from a peak of 59. Landry's owns it, and the Paris location closes in November.
- Who Owns Kinko's Now? FedEx Retired the BrandKinko's is gone in the US: FedEx bought it for $2.4 billion, then took an $891 million charge in 2008 to stop using the name.
- Is Toonami Still On TV in 2026? Yes, on Adult SwimToonami is still on TV in 2026: Adult Swim airs it Saturdays, midnight to 4 a.m. ET. Cartoon Network killed it in 2008 and a 2012 prank revived it.
- Is Photobucket Still Around? Why Your Photos VanishedPhotobucket is still around in 2026, but only as paid storage: free accounts ended in June 2023 and plans now start at $5 a month for 1TB.
- How Many KB Toys Stores Are Left? Zero Since 2009How many KB Toys stores are left? Zero. All 461 closed by February 9, 2009, and the brand now survives online and at a Comic-Con booth.
- Where Is FAO Schwarz Now? Inside Rockefeller CenterFAO Schwarz is still open, but not on Fifth Avenue. The flagship moved to 30 Rockefeller Plaza in 2018, and Nordstrom shops followed in 2026.
- Is Woolworth Still in Business? Only as Foot LockerWoolworth is still in business, but only as Foot Locker: it renamed itself in 2001, four years after shutting all 400 US five-and-dime stores.
- Is the Disney Store Still Open? 21 Left in 2026The Disney Store is still open, but only about 21 locations are left in North America in 2026, down from 747 stores at the 1999 peak.
- How Many Sam Goody Stores Are Left? Exactly OneExactly one Sam Goody store is left in 2026, at a mall in Medford, Oregon. Musicland closed 226 of them in a single month in 2006.
- When Did Netflix Stop Mailing DVDs? The Last DiscNetflix stopped mailing DVDs on September 29, 2023, after 25 years and 5.2 billion discs. The last red envelope held a Blu-ray of True Grit.
- Who Owns Borders Now? The $13.9 Million Brand SaleBorders closed its last US stores in September 2011. Barnes & Noble owns the name now, bought for $13.9 million with 48 million customer records.
- Is Hollywood Video Still Around? Every Store ClosedHollywood Video is gone. Movie Gallery liquidated the last 1,900-plus US stores in 2010, and its late fees chased 3.3 million customers for years.
- Is Barnes and Noble Still Open? 720+ Stores in 2026Barnes and Noble is still open and growing: more than 720 US stores in 2026, with 60 more planned. Elliott has owned the chain since 2019.
- Who Owns Claire's Now? The $140 Million BuyoutClaire's is owned by Ames Watson, which bought the chain out of bankruptcy in 2025 for about $140 million. Roughly 900 stores are still open.
- How Many Boston Market Locations Are Left in 2026?Boston Market is down to about six listed locations in 2026, and only three answered the phone. It had 1,143 restaurants in 1998. Here is what closed them.
- Is Redbox Still Around? Why Kiosks Are Still ThereRedbox is gone: its parent was liquidated in July 2024 and all 24,000 kiosks went dark. Thousands still stand because removal runs about $500 each.
- Who Owns Yahoo Now? The $5 Billion Apollo TakeoverYahoo is owned by Apollo Global Management, which paid about $5 billion in 2021. Verizon kept 10 percent. Microsoft once offered $44.6 billion.
- Is Habbo Hotel Still Around? The Pixel Hotel in 2026Habbo Hotel is still online in 2026, run by Sulake and owned by Azerion, with 300 million registered accounts and a 2005 replica running next door.
- Does Yahoo Answers Still Exist? Why It Shut DownYahoo Answers does not still exist. It went read-only on April 20, 2021 and closed on May 4, 2021, 15 years after launch. Here is what survived.
- Who Owns Napster in 2026? Every Owner Since 2001Napster is owned by Napster Corporation, formerly Infinite Reality, which paid $207 million in 2025 and killed the music service on January 1, 2026.
- Who Was the AOL 'You've Got Mail' Voice? Elwood EdwardsElwood Edwards recorded AOL's 'You've Got Mail' on a living room cassette in 1989 and was paid $200 once. He died in 2024, and AOL still plays it.
- Is MySpace Still Around? What Is Left of the SiteIs MySpace still around? Yes, myspace.com is online in 2026 and owned by Viant Technology. But a 2019 server migration erased 50 million songs.
- Is Kmart Still Open? The 3 Stores Left in 2026Is Kmart still open in 2026? Yes, but only three stores are left: Miami, Guam and St. Thomas. It had 2,114 the day it filed for bankruptcy.
- Who Owns Sears Now, and How Many Stores Are Left?Sears is owned by Eddie Lampert's Transformco and it is still trading. The last count found five full-line stores left, down from about 3,500.
- Is Toys R Us Still in Business? What Survived 2018Toys R Us closed all 735 US stores on June 29, 2018. The brand survived: WHP Global owns it, and 1,664 stores now trade in 35 countries.
- Is Blockbuster Still Open? The Last Store in 2026Is Blockbuster still open? Yes, but only one store, in Bend, Oregon. Who owns the brand in 2026, how 9,000 stores became one, and what it sells.
- Does AOL Still Exist? What You Get for $10 a MonthDoes AOL still exist? Yes. Italy's Bending Spoons bought it for about $1.5 billion in January 2026, and dial-up died on September 30, 2025.
- The Beanie Babies Bubble: How a $5 Toy Went BustBeanie Babies were a $5 toy people traded like stocks in 1998. How Ty Inc. built the bubble, why it burst in 1999, and what the bears are worth now.
- The First Banner Ad of 1994: What AT&T Really PaidThe first banner ad ran on HotWired on October 27, 1994. AT&T paid about $30,000 for 12 weeks and got a reported 44 percent click rate.
- theGlobe.com Today: The 606% IPO That Left a ShelltheGlobe.com is now an empty shell company with no employees and $15,115 in cash. Its 1998 IPO closed up 606 percent, a record that still stands.
- What Happened to Excite, the Search Engine That Turned Down Google for $750,000In 1999, Excite was worth $35 billion and had the chance to buy Google for $750,000. CEO George Bell said no. The full story is more complicated, and a lot more interesting, than the punchline suggests.
- What Happened to PointCast and the 1990s Push Technology BoomIn 1997, News Corporation offered $450 million for a company that delivered headlines through a screensaver. Two years later it sold for $7 million. The full story of push technology's rise and collapse.
- What Happened to TechTV and The Screen Savers ChannelZDTV launched in 1998. Comcast killed it in less than a year after the 2004 G4 merger. Here is how a cable channel built for nerds disappeared, and where its hosts went.
- What Happened to Wine.com and the Internet Wine WarsThree companies burned through more than $200M trying to sell wine online between 1995 and 2001. The smallest one ended up owning the Wine.com domain.
- What Happened to NCSA Mosaic, the Browser That Built the World Wide WebBefore Netscape, before Internet Explorer, there was Mosaic. The browser two students built at a public university in 1993 became the front door to the early web, then quietly disappeared while reshaping the next thirty years of the internet.
- What Happened to Prodigy, the Online Service That Beat AOL to AmericaBefore AOL, before the web, two of the biggest companies in America spent over a billion dollars trying to teach the country how to go online. Prodigy got there first, then lost everything.
- What Happened to Xanga, the Blog Platform Before Blogging Was CoolXanga had 27 million users before most people knew what a blog was. Then it vanished. The real story involves a $1 million FTC fine, a failed crowdfunding campaign, and the rise of Facebook.
- What Happened to Tumblr, the Platform Yahoo Bought for a Billion and Sold for PenniesYahoo paid $1.1 billion for Tumblr in 2013. Six years later, Verizon sold it to Automattic for $3 million. Here's the full story of how a culture platform got killed by the companies that owned it.
- What Happened to LiveJournal, the Platform That Invented Modern BloggingLiveJournal had 18 million users and invented friends lists, access controls, and communities years before Facebook existed. Then its servers moved to Russia overnight.
- What Happened to Flickr, the Photo Site Yahoo Left to DieFlickr once hosted nearly 2 billion photos and defined photo-sharing for a generation. Then Yahoo acquired it, removed the features that made it special, and left it to rot while Instagram ate its lunch.
- What Happened to Oregon Trail, the Game That Taught America to Die of DysenteryCreated in two weeks on a teletype by three student teachers in 1971, Oregon Trail became the most successful educational game ever made, selling 65 million copies before corporate acquisitions scattered its legacy.
- What Happened to IRC, the Chat Protocol That Built the InternetCreated in 1988 by a Finnish computer science student, IRC kept the internet connected during the Gulf War and became home to millions of users. But Discord and Slack made it obsolete.
- What Happened to SimCity and How EA Destroyed ItFrom Will Wright’s revolutionary city builder to EA’s catastrophic always-online launch, the rise and fall of SimCity is a cautionary tale about corporate mismanagement.
- What Happened to BonziBuddy, the Internet's Friendliest SpywareThe purple gorilla that harvested your data. How BonziBuddy went from desktop companion to FTC settlement, and what it reveals about early internet trust.
- What Happened to Polaroid, the Camera That Died and Came BackPolaroid peaked at $3 billion in revenue, went bankrupt twice, and was rescued by a group of enthusiasts who bought the last factory on Earth for $3.1 million.
- What Happened to Kazaa and the P2P Wars After NapsterKazaa became the most downloaded software on Earth, survived where Napster couldn't, and still lost everything. The full story of the P2P wars.
- What Happened to MiniDisc, Sony's Forgotten Music FormatSony spent billions building the perfect portable music format. It conquered Japan, flopped everywhere else, and now Gen Z is collecting them on TikTok.
- What Happened to Clippy, the Paperclip Everyone Loved to HateMicrosoft spent millions on user research, hired Stanford psychologists, tested 250 character designs, and somehow still created the most universally despised software feature of the 1990s.
- What Happened to Neopets, the Virtual World That Raised a GenerationFrom 150 million accounts and $160 million acquisitions to corporate neglect and a management buyout. The full story of how Neopets rose, fell, and tried to come back.
- Is Lycos Still Around in 2026? Who Owns It NowLycos is still online in 2026 as a small portal owned through Brightcom Group. Terra Networks paid $12.5 billion for it; Ybrant paid $36 million.
- Is Craigslist Still Around in 2026? Who Owns It NowCraigslist is still online in 2026 and still owned by Craig Newmark and Jim Buckmaster, but revenue fell from $1.034 billion to $302 million.
- Who Owns CompuServe Now? Yahoo Runs the PortalCompuServe survives as a news portal owned by Yahoo. The dial-up service ended in 2009 and the forums closed on December 15, 2017.
- Why Boo.com Failed and Who Owns the Domain NowBoo.com burned $135 million in 18 months and collapsed on 18 May 2000. Hostelworld holds the domain now, bought out of a $375,000 fire sale.
- Is Excite@Home Still Around? AT&T Took the NetworkExcite@Home is gone. It filed for Chapter 11 in September 2001 and AT&T took the network for $307 million, about one percent of its $35 billion peak.
- Is AOL Time Warner Still a Company? What Is LeftAOL Time Warner stopped existing in 2009. AOL is being sold to Bending Spoons for $1.5 billion; Warner Bros. Discovery holds the rest.
- Is Kozmo.com Still Around? The Brand's Fate in 2026Kozmo.com died in April 2001 after a $280 million loss. Los Angeles grocer Yummy Foods owns the name now, and the site has been dark since 2023.
- Did Amazon Almost Go Bankrupt in the Dot-Com Crash?Amazon never went bankrupt, but it came close: a Lehman analyst gave it four quarters of cash. A $672 million bond bought the time it needed.
- Is Webvan Still Around? The $830 Million CollapseWebvan shut down in July 2001 after burning about $830 million. Amazon owns the name now, and its founder is back with a robot warehouse.
- Is eBay Still Around in 2026? 135 Million BuyerseBay is still around in 2026: a public Nasdaq company with 135 million buyers and $79.6 billion sold in 2025. It started with a broken laser pointer.
- Is Friendster Still Around? It Came Back in 2026Friendster deleted every profile in 2011 and shut down in 2015, but the name relaunched in April 2026 as an app with no ads and no algorithm.
- Does AltaVista Still Exist? Yahoo Closed It in 2013AltaVista no longer exists: Yahoo closed the search engine on July 8, 2013. Apollo-owned Yahoo still holds the domain that sold for $140 million in 2003.
- Who Owns MTV Now, and Does It Still Play Music?MTV is still on the air in 2026 and owned by Paramount Skydance, but its last five music-only channels went dark on December 31, 2025.
- How MySpace Lost to Facebook and Sold for $35MMySpace lost to Facebook after News Corporation tied the site to a $900 million Google ad deal. It sold for $35 million in June 2011.
- Is Google Glass Still Around? Discontinued in 2023Google Glass is discontinued: sales ended March 15, 2023 and support that September. What the $1,500 headset was, and what Google sells now.
- Is the Microsoft Zune Still Around? Why It FailedMicrosoft Zune hardware died in 2011 and its services in 2015. Here is why it lost to the iPod, and what a used Zune HD costs in 2026.
- Why Pets.com Failed and Where the Sock Puppet WentPets.com sold pet food below cost, IPO'd at $11 in February 2000 and shut its store that November. PetSmart owns the domain; the sock puppet outlived it.
- Why Google+ Failed and When Google Shut It DownGoogle+ shut down on April 2, 2019 and Google Currents followed in 2023. Here is why a $585 million social network sat empty.
- Does Hotmail Still Exist? Outlook.com Runs It NowHotmail still exists. Microsoft retired the name in May 2013 and moved 300 million accounts to Outlook.com, where old addresses still work.
- Does GeoCities Still Exist? Where the Pages WentGeoCities does not still exist. Yahoo deleted it on October 26, 2009, taking about 38 million pages. Archive Team saved 641 GB of them.
- Was Apple Really 90 Days From Bankruptcy in 1997?Apple lost $1.04 billion in fiscal 1997 and Steve Jobs called it 90 days from insolvent. Microsoft's $150 million check landed on August 6, 1997.
- Y2K Explained: What Really Broke on January 1, 2000The Y2K bug was real and the US spent about $100 billion killing it. Here is what still broke on January 1, 2000, from spy satellites to slot machines.
- Did Napster Kill the Music Industry? The 2026 MathNapster did not kill the music industry. US revenue fell from $14.6 billion in 1999 to $8.5 billion in 2009, then hit a record $11.5 billion in 2025.
- 90s Websites Still Online in 2026: 5 That SurvivedYes, 90s websites are still online in 2026: the 1996 Space Jam site lives at spacejam.com/1996 and info.cern.ch has run since 1991.
- Dial-Up Speed vs 2026 Internet: How Slow Was 56k?Dial-up speed topped out at 53.3 kbit/s, about 1,876 times slower than the 100 Mbps broadband floor. AOL quit dial-up on September 30, 2025.
- What Was the First Thing Sold Online? PizzaNet vs a CDThe first thing sold online was not a pizza. PizzaNet took orders in August 1994, eleven days after a Sting CD sold for $12.48.
- Did Blockbuster Turn Down Netflix for $50 Million?Blockbuster did turn down Netflix for $50 million in 2000. Netflix booked $45.2 billion in 2025 revenue; EchoStar now owns the Blockbuster name.
- Did Yahoo Turn Down Google for $1 Million in 1998?Yahoo never bought Google and Google never bought Yahoo. The $1 million story is thinly sourced, and the real offer in 2002 was $3 billion.
- Microsoft Tried to Buy Nintendo and Got Laughed AtMicrosoft tried to buy Nintendo in 1999 and spent an hour being laughed at. The letter survives, and the Xbox shipped two years later.