Throwing in the towel

[RoadRunner]

This is a list of websites that are closing their doors, laying off employees, or otherwise tanking it.

I just saw that Priceline is closing their WebHouse gas-and-groceries shop.

There are rumors that WebMD is going to be scuttled. One of their chief execs in charge of technology is resigning.

[RoadRunner]

A few old closings are: Pop.com - Actually never made it off the ground. Had backing by Dreamworks and Imagine Entertainment.
Auctions.com
Living.com (furniture)
ValueAmerica.com (shopping)
Reel.com (movies)
Boo.com (clothing, I think)
ToySmart.com (toys)
RedRocket.com (toys)

There are plenty of other sites, but these are some of the best known.

[RoadRunner]

Layoffs
Gear.com - 22 on 9/27/2000
AltaVista.com - 225 on 9/15/2000
Deja.com - 50 on 9/13/2000
Shockwave.com - 20 on 9/7/2000
Corel - 139 on 9/6/2000
Novell - 900 on 9/6/2000
Scour - 56 on 9/1/2000
DrKoop.com - 42 on 8/30/2000
Oxygen Media - 12 on 6/7/2000
Salon.com - 13 on 6/7/2000

[TWTCommish]

Ouch! That hurts...it's a real shame, too. Internet companies can become viable businesses, however the tremendous over-hype has led to a letdown, even though all of the sites are still quite impressive.

One major difference between Internet companies and offline companies: if Coca-Cola goes out of business, Pepsi will be happy and continue to sell Pepsi. If Amazon.com goes out of business, someone like Barnes and Noble will buy them up and put them to use - Internet companies don't die, their ownership just changes! :)

[blinc]

Oh darn. Roadrunner, I love the WebMD site. I've gotten tons of useful info off that site. The way they have their search thing set up was wonderful. What a shame! Have you heard when they are shutting down, or if they are shutting down for sure?

[Anat]

I wonder what happens to the domain names of these sites when they die? Some of them are great but I think they've become trademarks by now.

I actually tried buying Cats.com, but I got no response from the people that own it (they don't have any site there - they just hang on to the domain).