AboutUs.com is an inactive

internet domain The Internet (or internet) is the global system of interconnected computer networks that uses the Internet protocol suite (TCP/IP) to communicate between networks and devices. It is a network of networks that consists of private, publ ...

directory

wiki A wiki ( ) is a form of hypertext publication on the internet which is collaboratively edited and managed by its audience directly through a web browser. A typical wiki contains multiple pages that can either be edited by the public or l ...

. It lists

website A website (also written as a web site) is any web page whose content is identified by a common domain name and is published on at least one web server. Websites are typically dedicated to a particular topic or purpose, such as news, educatio ...

s along with information about their content. As a wiki, AboutUs allows Internet users to add entries or modify information. AboutUs.com has since become a wiki for more than just websites. The site allows pages to be created for people, places, and almost anything else. Ray King, Jay Westerdal, and Paul Stahura founded AboutUs in 2005. Later in 2006 a small staff of five people in Portland,

Oregon Oregon ( , ) is a U.S. state, state in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. It is a part of the Western U.S., with the Columbia River delineating much of Oregon's northern boundary with Washington (state), Washington, while t ...

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

developed out the site. The staff expanded to more than thirty people and two continents with an office in

Lahore Lahore ( ; ; ) is the capital and largest city of the Administrative units of Pakistan, Pakistani province of Punjab, Pakistan, Punjab. It is the List of cities in Pakistan by population, second-largest city in Pakistan, after Karachi, and ...

Pakistan Pakistan, officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by population, fifth-most populous country, with a population of over 241.5 million, having the Islam by country# ...

. From May 2007 to early 2011,

Ward Cunningham Howard G. Cunningham (born May 26, 1949) is an American computer programmer who developed the first wiki Excerpt from 2014 book '' The Innovators''. and was a co-author of the '' Manifesto for Agile Software Development''. Called a pioneer, and ...

, developer of the first

, was the chief technology officer of AboutUs. AboutUs attracted at least 1.4 million U.S. visitors in July 2008. They used to use the domain name "AboutUs.org", but moved to new site under "AboutUs.com" in May 2010. Traffic and revenue started declining sharply and in 2013 AboutUs.com and its assets were sold to Omkarasana LLC, a Colorado Limited Liability Company located in Denver. The new company has since redesigned the website, migrated its infrastructure over to Amazon Web Services, and attempted to increase visitors and revenue. However, as of February 2024, activity on the site has all but ceased, with only one edit being performed since November 2018.

Website contents

There were more than ten million entries on AboutUs.com as of March 2008, with about 25,000 pages being added a day during that period. Most entries were created by a web robot (bot); web searches by users direct the bot to create a page for a web domain. In many cases the content is simply a republication of the contents of the "About us", "About me", or similar page on the website. Such pages typically describe the entity that owns the site, and may include self-promotional information, which AboutUs.com does not restrict. In many other cases the content of an entry consists of the

whois WHOIS (pronounced as the phrase "who is") is a query and response protocol that is used for querying databases that store an Internet resource's registered users or assignees. These resources include domain names, IP address blocks and autonomo ...

data for the website. As of February 2014, there were more than 20 million entries.

Data use

Some websites that analyze domains and traffic link to AboutUs.com as a point of additional reference. Notably, the "

Whois WHOIS (pronounced as the phrase "who is") is a query and response protocol that is used for querying databases that store an Internet resource's registered users or assignees. These resources include domain names, IP address blocks and autonomo ...

" site DomainTools referenced the Aboutus.com listing along with standard server information, domain ownership and history, and additional data. AboutUs also referenced whois data content from the registrars

Network Solutions Network Solutions, LLC, formerly Web.com, is an American-based technology company and a subsidiary of Web.com, the 4th-largest .com domain name registrar, with over 6.7 million registrations as of August 2018. In addition to being a domain name ...

and Register.com.

Malware domains

To prevent users from visiting

malware Malware (a portmanteau of ''malicious software'')Tahir, R. (2018)A study on malware and malware detection techniques . ''International Journal of Education and Management Engineering'', ''8''(2), 20. is any software intentionally designed to caus ...

domains, editors worked with

McAfee McAfee Corp. ( ), formerly known as McAfee Associates, Inc. from 1987 to 1997 and 2004 to 2014, Network Associates Inc. from 1997 to 2004, and Intel Security Group from 2014 to 2017, is an American proprietary software company focused on online ...

SiteAdvisor and PHSDL to identify such domains. Once a malware domain is identified, an AboutUs MalwareSite

template Template may refer to: Tools * Die (manufacturing), used to cut or shape material * Mold, in a molding process * Stencil, a pattern or overlay used in graphic arts (drawing, painting, etc.) and sewing to replicate letters, shapes or designs C ...

was placed to warn users.

Popularity

AboutUs.com is an open directory, and does not restrict website owners from writing in their own comments, or referencing commercial information that is not necessarily notable; webmasters are permitted to engage in self-promotion. AboutUs.com fills the gap for webmasters by encouraging the posting of information about all websites regardless of notability or commercial interest. Because of the open editing policy, and inclusion of commercial sites, its volume of content grew rapidly. It was also popular among webmasters or website owners seeking to include their "about us" information on AboutUs.com, as a central point of summary information on the web.

Decline

Editing activity on the site appears to have ceased entirely in 2018. Even in 2018, editing was done only by a handful of prolific editors The only edit since 2018 has been to the terms of service page, when the address to send copyright infringement notices to was updated in May 2020; as of February 2024, no other edits have taken place.

Funding

In November 2006, AboutUs closed its initial financing round for one million dollars. In January 2009, AboutUs secured a $5 million funding round from Voyager Capital.Aliza Earnshaw
"AboutUs nabs $5M infusion"
''Portland Business Journal'', January 9, 2009

References

External links

AboutUs.com
* Marshall Kilpatrick,
AboutUs: A Wiki About Every Website
" ''

TechCrunch TechCrunch is an American global online newspaper focusing on topics regarding high tech, high-tech and Startup company, startup companies. It was founded in June 2005 by Archimedes Ventures, led by partners Michael Arrington and Keith Teare. I ...

'', 11/14/2006. {{DEFAULTSORT:Aboutus.com MediaWiki websites Web directories Companies based in Portland, Oregon Internet properties established in 2006 2006 establishments in Oregon