Misplaced Pages

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61-444: Bomis, Inc. ( / ˈ b ɒ m ɪ s / , from Bitter Old Men in Suits ; rhyming with "promise") was a dot-com company best known for supporting the creations of free-content online-encyclopedia projects Nupedia and Misplaced Pages . It was co-founded in 1996 by Jimmy Wales , Tim Shell, and Michael Davis . By 2007, the company was inactive, with its Misplaced Pages-related resources transferred to

122-445: A board of trustees composed of Bomis' three founders (Wales, Davis, and Shell) and was first headquartered in St. Petersburg, Florida , Bomis' location. Wales used about US$ 100,000 of revenue from Bomis to fund Misplaced Pages before the decision to shift the encyclopedia to non-profit status. Wales stepped down from his role as CEO of Bomis in 2004. Shell was CEO of the company in 2005, while on

183-439: A secure and private data transfer. Web pages usually contain hyperlinks to other pages and resources. Each link contains a URL, and when it is clicked or tapped , the browser navigates to the new resource. Most browsers use an internal cache of web page resources to improve loading times for subsequent visits to the same page. The cache can store many items, such as large images, so they do not need to be downloaded from

244-465: A user requests a web page from a particular website, the browser retrieves its files from a web server and then displays the page on the user's screen. Browsers are used on a range of devices, including desktops , laptops , tablets , and smartphones . By 2020, an estimated 4.9 billion people had used a browser. The most-used browser is Google Chrome , with a 67% global market share on all devices, followed by Safari with 18%. A web browser

305-599: A web portal , trying a number of ideas (including serving as an access point for information about Chicago). It later focused on male-oriented content, including information on sporting activities, automobiles, and women. Working from the Open Directory Project , Bomis created and maintained hundreds of webrings on topics related to lad culture . In 1999 the company introduced the Bomis Browser, which helped users block online pop-up ads . Its webring on Star Wars

366-412: A web search engine . The advertising director for Bomis noted that 99 percent of queries on the site were for nude women. Bomis created Nupedia as a free online encyclopedia (with content submitted by experts) but it had a tedious, slow review process. Misplaced Pages was initially launched by Bomis to provide content for Nupedia, and was a for-profit venture (a Bomis subsidiary) through the end of 2002. As

427-487: A commercial or for-profit entity, as opposed to a non-commercial entity or non-profit organization , which usually use .org. The name for the domain came from the word commercial , as that is the main intended use. Since the .com companies are web-based, often their products or services are delivered via web-based mechanisms, even when physical products are involved. On the other hand, some .com companies do not offer any physical products. The .com top-level domain (TLD)

488-399: A large payoff for the founders. Others were existing companies that re-styled themselves as Internet companies, many of them legally changing their names to incorporate a .com suffix. The stock market crash around 2000 that ended the dot-com bubble resulted in many failed and failing dot-com companies, which were referred to punningly as dot-bombs , dot-cons or dot-gones . Many of

549-538: A new standard for breadth, depth, timeliness and lack of bias, and in the fullness of time to become the most comprehensive encyclopedia in the history of humankind." Although Bomis began a search for experts to vet Nupedia articles, this proved tedious. In August 2000 Nupedia had more than 60 academics contributing to the peer-review process on the site, most with doctorates in philosophy or medicine. Scholars wishing to contribute to Nupedia were required to submit their credentials via fax for verification. At that time, Bomis

610-499: A profit. The same phenomenon occurred with many other internet companies—venture capitalists were eager to invest, even when the companies in question were not profitable. In late 1999, the Nasdaq index reached a price-to-earnings ratio of over 200, more than double that of the Japanese asset price bubble at the beginning of the 1990s. A common indicator used to show the dramatic rise in

671-507: A result of the dot-com crash . In late 2000 Bomis had a staff of about 11 employees, but by early 2002 layoffs reduced the staff to its original size of about five. Sanger was laid off in February 2002; from January 15, 2001, through March 1, 2002, he was the sole paid editor of Misplaced Pages. Sanger stepped down from his dual roles as chief organizer of Misplaced Pages and editor-in-chief of Nupedia on March 1, 2002, feeling unable to commit to these areas on

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732-519: A section in the menu for deleting cookies. Finer-grained management of cookies usually requires a browser extension . The first web browser, called WorldWideWeb , was created in 1990 by Sir Tim Berners-Lee . He then recruited Nicola Pellow to write the Line Mode Browser , which displayed web pages on dumb terminals . The Mosaic web browser was released in April 1993, and was later credited as

793-427: A seven-step process of review and copyediting, and Misplaced Pages grew at a faster rate. In November 2000, Nupedia had 115 potential articles awaiting its peer-review process. By September 2001, after a total investment of US$ 250,000 from Bomis, Nupedia produced 12 articles; from 2000 through 2003, Nupedia contributors produced a total of 24 finalized articles. Misplaced Pages had about 20,000 articles and versions in 18 languages by

854-491: A study track at Indiana University as a PhD candidate to work in finance before completing his doctoral dissertation . In 1994 Wales was hired by Michael Davis , CEO of finance company Chicago Options Associates , as a trader focusing on futures contracts and options . Wales was adept at determining future movements of foreign currencies and interest rates ; he was successful in Chicago , became independently wealthy, and

915-500: A volunteer basis and a dearth of "the habit or tradition of respect for expertise" from high-ranking Misplaced Pages members. He continued contributing to community discussions, optimistic about Misplaced Pages's future success. After Sanger's departure, Misplaced Pages was managed by Wales and a burgeoning online community. Although Wales thought advertising was a possibility, the Misplaced Pages community was opposed to business development and Internet marketing

976-731: A while." Jeff Howe wrote in his 2008 book, Crowdsourcing: How the Power of the Crowd is Driving the Future of Business , about "one of Wales's less altruistic ventures, a Web portal called Bomis.com that featured, among other items, soft-core pornography." In his 2008 book, The Future of the Internet and How to Stop It , legal scholar Jonathan Zittrain wrote that "Bomis helped people find 'erotic photography', and earned money through advertising as well as subscription fees for premium content." The Guardian described

1037-480: Is a social faux pas to write about yourself." Larry Sanger said, "It does seem that Jimmy is attempting to rewrite history", and began a discussion on the talk page of Wales' biography about historical revisionism . Wales called his actions fixing mistakes, but after Cadenhead publicized the edits to his biography he expressed regret for his actions. In The Times Wales said that individuals should not edit their own Misplaced Pages biographies, telling The New Yorker that

1098-460: Is based on Mozilla 's code. Both of these codebases are open-source, so a number of small niche browsers are also made from them. The most popular browsers share many features in common. They automatically log users' browsing history , unless the users turn off their browsing history or use the non-logging private mode . They also allow users to set bookmarks , customize the browser with extensions , and can manage user passwords . Some provide

1159-404: Is not the same thing as a search engine , though the two are often confused. A search engine is a website that provides links to other websites. However, to connect to a website's server and display its web pages, a user must have a web browser installed. In some technical contexts, browsers are referred to as user agents . The purpose of a web browser is to fetch content and display it on

1220-669: The St. Petersburg Times he no longer controlled Bomis' day-to-day operations, but retained ownership as a shareholder. In 2005, Tim Shell was CEO of Bomis and one of the board members overseeing Misplaced Pages. Shell remained CEO of Bomis in 2006, becoming vice-president of the Wikimedia Foundation and continuing to sit on its board. Bomis co-founder Michael Davis became treasurer of the Wikimedia Foundation that year. Wales told The Sydney Morning Herald in 2007 that although he retained partial ownership of Bomis, "It's pretty much dead." According to

1281-886: The Internet Archive , the Bomis website was last accessible with content in 2010; when accessed in 2013 by the archive, it had a welcome message for PetaBox . When accessed in 2014 by the archive, the website featured a blank white page with a line of text saying "Hello, world!". In 2005, Wales made 18 changes to his Misplaced Pages biography. He removed references to Bomis Babes as softcore pornography and erotica , and Larry Sanger as co-founder of Misplaced Pages. Wales' actions were publicized by author Rogers Cadenhead , attracting attention from US and UK media. In 2011, Time listed Wales' 2005 edits in its "Top 10 Misplaced Pages Moments". Misplaced Pages policy warned users not to edit their own biography pages, with its rules on autobiographical editing quoting Wales: "It

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1342-635: The Wikimedia Foundation . The company initially tried a number of ideas for content, including being a directory of information about Chicago . The site subsequently focused on content geared to a male audience, including information on sporting activities, automobiles, and women. Bomis became successful after focusing on pornography. "Bomis Babes" was devoted to erotic images; the "Bomis Babe Report" featured adult pictures. Bomis Premium, available for an additional fee, provided explicit material . "The Babe Engine" helped users find erotic content through

1403-408: The most popular browser. Microsoft debuted Internet Explorer in 1995, leading to a browser war with Netscape. Within a few years, Microsoft gained a dominant position in the browser market for two reasons: it bundled Internet Explorer with its popular Windows operating system and did so as freeware with no restrictions on usage. The market share of Internet Explorer peaked at over 95% in

1464-470: The 2000 Nupedia venture. Larry Sanger met Jimmy Wales through an e-mail communication group about philosophy and objectivism, and joined Bomis in May, 1999. Sanger was a graduate student working towards a PhD degree in philosophy, with research focused on epistemology ; he received his degree from Ohio State University , moving to San Diego to help Bomis with its encyclopedia venture. At the time Sanger joined Bomis

1525-510: The 2007 book The Cult of the Amateur by Andrew Keen . Wales considered the " Playboy of the Internet" nickname inappropriate, although he was asked in interviews if his time at Bomis made him a "porn king". The 2010 documentary film about Misplaced Pages, Truth in Numbers? Everything, According to Misplaced Pages , discussed this characterization of Wales by journalists. Wales, interviewed in the film, called

1586-453: The Babe Engine, which helped users find erotic material online through a web search engine . According to Bomis advertising director Terry Foote, 99 percent of searches on the site related to nude women. Bomis is best known for supporting the creation of free-content online-encyclopedia projects Nupedia and Misplaced Pages. Tim Shell and Michael Davis continued their partnership with Wales during

1647-589: The Bomis Babes section was the Bomis Babe Report, begun in 2000, with pictures of porn stars in a blog format. The Bomis Babe Report produced original erotic material, including reports on pornographic film actors and celebrities who had posed nude. It was referred to as The Babe Report for short. Wales referred to the site's softcore pornography as "glamour photography", and Bomis became familiar to Internet users for its erotic images. During this period Wales

1708-432: The Internet and improving his skill at computer programming . In his spare time after work at Chicago Options Associates, Wales constructed his own web browser . While at the firm, he noted the successful 1995 initial public offering of Netscape Communications . Wales co-founded Bomis in 1996, with business associates Tim Shell, and his then-manager Michael Davis, as a for-profit corporation with joint ownership. Wales

1769-432: The Wikimedia Foundation board of trustees. Wales edited Misplaced Pages in 2005 to remove the characterizations of Bomis as providing softcore pornography , which attracted media attention; Wales expressed regret for his actions. The Atlantic gave Bomis the nickname " Playboy of the Internet", and the term caught on in other media outlets. Scholars have described Bomis as a provider of softcore pornography. Jimmy Wales left

1830-513: The basis for many other browsers, including Microsoft Edge , currently in third place with about a 5% share, as well as Samsung Internet and Opera in fifth and sixth places respectively with over 2% market share each. The other two browsers in the top four are made from different codebases . Safari , based on Apple 's WebKit code, is the second most popular web browser and is dominant on Apple devices, resulting in an 18% global share. Firefox , in fourth place, with about 3% market share,

1891-470: The board by Wales, but after Misplaced Pages community members complained that the board was composed of appointed individuals, the first elections were held in 2004. Two community members, Florence Devouard and Angela Beesley, were elected to the board of trustees. In August 2004 Wales was chief executive officer of Bomis, and on September 20 Misplaced Pages reached the million-article mark on an expenditure of $ 500,000 (most directly from Wales). In November 2004 he told

Bomis - Misplaced Pages Continue

1952-576: The characterization inaccurate and explained that his company responded to content demand from customers. In later interviews, he responded to "porn king" questions by telling journalists to look at a page on Yahoo! about pornography related to dwarfism . According to a 2007 article in Reason , "If he was a porn king, he suggests, so is the head of the biggest Web portal in the world." The Chronicle of Philanthropy characterized Bomis as "an Internet marketing firm... which also traded in erotic photographs for

2013-487: The company had a total workforce of two employees with help from programmers. Sanger and Wales began Nupedia with resources from Bomis; at the beginning of 2000, the company agreed to provide early financing for Nupedia from its profits. Nupedia went live in March, when Wales was CEO of Bomis; Sanger was Nupedia's editor-in-chief. Nupedia's reading comprehension was intended for high-school graduates, and Bomis set its goal: "To set

2074-505: The company maintained nekkid.com and nekkid.info, which featured pictures of nude women. About ten percent of Bomis' revenue was derived from pornographic films and blogs. The website included a segment devoted to erotic images, "Bomis Babes", and a feature enabled users to submit recommended links to other sites appealing to a male audience. Peer-to-peer services provided by the site helped users find other websites about female celebrities, including Anna Kournikova and Pamela Anderson . In

2135-438: The costs of Misplaced Pages rose with its popularity, Bomis' revenues declined; these losses were compounded by the dot-com crash . Since Misplaced Pages was a drain on Bomis' resources, Wales and philosophy graduate student Larry Sanger decided to fund the project as a nonprofit . Sanger was laid off from Bomis in 2002. Nupedia content was merged into Misplaced Pages, and it ceased in 2003. The non-profit Wikimedia Foundation began in 2003 with

2196-646: The early 2000s. In 1998, Netscape launched what would become the Mozilla Foundation to create a new browser using the open-source software model. This work evolved into the Firefox browser, first released by Mozilla in 2004. Firefox's market share peaked at 32% in 2010. Apple released its Safari browser in 2003; it remains the dominant browser on Apple devices, though it did not become popular elsewhere. Google debuted its Chrome browser in 2008, which steadily took market share from Internet Explorer and became

2257-507: The end of 2001. Bomis originally planned to make Misplaced Pages profitable, providing staffing and hardware for its initial structure; Misplaced Pages would not have survived without this early support. Bomis provided web servers and bandwidth for the projects, owning key items such as domain names. Wales used money from Bomis to maintain the Misplaced Pages servers in Tampa, Florida . As the cost of Misplaced Pages rose with its popularity, Bomis' revenues declined as

2318-507: The first secure online credit card transaction was made using the NetMarket platform. By 1995, over 40 million people were using the Internet. That same year, companies including Amazon.com and eBay were launched, paving the way for future e-commerce companies. At the time of Amazon's IPO in 1997, they were recording a 900% increase in revenue over the previous year. By 1998, with a valuation of over $ 14 billion, they were still not making

2379-677: The first web browser to find mainstream popularity. Its innovative graphical user interface made the World Wide Web easy to navigate and thus more accessible to the average person. This, in turn, sparked the Internet boom of the 1990s, when the Web grew at a very rapid rate. The lead developers of Mosaic then founded the Netscape corporation, which released the Mosaic-influenced Netscape Navigator in 1994. Navigator quickly became

2440-410: The foundation. It was first headquartered in St. Petersburg, Florida , where Bomis was located. The foundation shifted Misplaced Pages's dependence away from Bomis, allowing it to purchase hardware for expansion. The Wikimedia Foundation board of trustees was initially composed of Bomis' three founders: Jimmy Wales and his two business partners, Michael Davis and Tim Shell. Shell and Davis were appointed to

2501-475: The late 1990s with the rapid growth of the World Wide Web. Many such startups were formed to take advantage of the surplus of venture capital funding and were launched with thin business plans , sometimes with just an idea and a catchy name. The stated goal was often to " get big fast ", i.e. to capture a majority share of whatever market was being entered. The exit strategy usually included an IPO and

Bomis - Misplaced Pages Continue

2562-508: The most popular browser in 2012. Chrome has remained dominant ever since. By 2015, Microsoft replaced Internet Explorer with Edge for the Windows 10 release. Since the early 2000s, browsers have greatly expanded their HTML , CSS , JavaScript , and multimedia capabilities. One reason has been to enable more sophisticated websites, such as web apps . Another factor is the significant increase of broadband connectivity in many parts of

2623-505: The number of dot-com companies is the number of advertisements purchased at the Super Bowl . In 1999, only two internet companies bought advertisements, but that number reached 17 the following year . However, this number sharply decreased in 2001, with only 3 dot-com companies purchasing an advertising slot. While the term can refer to present-day companies, it is also used about companies with this business model that came into being during

2684-435: The program. Sheila Jeffreys noted in her Beauty and Misogyny that in 2004 Bomis maintained "The Lipstick Fetish Ring", which helped users with a particular attraction to women in makeup. Bomis became successful after it focused on X-rated and erotic media. Advertising generated revenue which enabled the company to fund other websites, and the site published suggestive pictures of professional models . In addition to Bomis

2745-454: The project. With Misplaced Pages a drain on the company's resources, Wales and Sanger decided to fund the project on a non-profit basis. Bomis laid off most of its employees to continue operating, since Misplaced Pages was not generating revenue. The company owned Misplaced Pages from its creation through 2003, and Wales used about $ 100,000 of Bomis' revenue to fund Misplaced Pages before the decision to shift the encyclopedia to non-profit status. In June 2003 Misplaced Pages

2806-401: The server again. Cached items are usually only stored for as long as the web server stipulates in its HTTP response messages. During the course of browsing, cookies received from various websites are stored by the browser. Some of them contain login credentials or site preferences. However, others are used for tracking user behavior over long periods of time, so browsers typically provide

2867-409: The site as on "the fringes of the adult entertainment industry", and The Edge called Bomis.com an "explicit-content search engine". Business 2.0 Magazine described it as "a search portal... which created and hosted Web rings around popular search terms – including, not surprisingly, a lot of adult themes." Dot-com company The suffix .com in a URL usually (but not always) refers to

2928-412: The standard applied to himself as well. Wales warned that the activity should be discouraged because of the potential for bias: "I wish I hadn't done it. It's in poor taste." Bomis was called the " Playboy of the Internet" by The Atlantic , and the sobriquet was subsequently used by publications including The Sunday Times , The Daily Telegraph , MSN Money , Wired , The Torch Magazine , and

2989-436: The surviving firms dropped the .com suffix from their names. The burst of the dot-com bubble triggered a wave of market panic, leading to widespread sell-offs of stocks from dot-com companies. This selling frenzy further depressed the values of these stocks, and by 2002, estimated investor losses had reached an astounding $ 5 trillion. Web browser A web browser is an application for accessing websites . When

3050-485: The user's device. This process begins when the user inputs a Uniform Resource Locator (URL), such as https://en.wikipedia.org/ , into the browser. Virtually all URLs on the Web start with either http: or https: which means they are retrieved with the Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP). For secure mode (HTTPS), the connection between the browser and web server is encrypted , providing

3111-405: The world, enabling people to access data-intensive content, such as streaming HD video on YouTube , that was not possible during the era of dial-up modems . Google Chrome has been the dominant browser since the mid-2010s and currently has a 67% global market share on all devices. The vast majority of its source code comes from Google's open-source Chromium project; this code is also

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3172-412: Was attempting to obtain advertising revenue for Nupedia and the company was optimistic that it could fund the project with ad space on Nupedia.com. Misplaced Pages began as a feature of Nupedia.com on January 15, 2001, later known as Misplaced Pages Day . Someone working from the office.bomis.com server created the first edit to the website, the creation of HomePage with the text "This is the new WikiPedia!" It

3233-612: Was considered a useful resource for information on Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace (1999). Additional webrings included sections helping users find information on the 1942 film Casablanca , Hunter S. Thompson , Farrah Fawcett , Geri Halliwell of the Spice Girls , and the 1998 film Snake Eyes . "Bomis: The Buffy the Vampire Slayer Ring", devoted to Buffy the Vampire Slayer , organized over 50 sites related to

3294-469: Was difficult in 2002. Misplaced Pages remained a for-profit venture (under the auspices of Bomis) through the end of 2002. By then it had moved from a .com domain name to .org , and Wales said that the site would not accept advertising. Material from Nupedia was folded into Misplaced Pages and it was discontinued by 2003. By 2003 Misplaced Pages had grown to 100,000 articles in its English-language version, and it became difficult for Bomis to continue financially supporting

3355-466: Was director of research at Chicago Options Associates from 1994 to 2000. He became acquainted with Tim Shell from email lists discussing philosophy. Wales wanted to participate in the online-based entrepreneurial ventures which were increasingly popular and successful during the mid-1990s. His experience (from gaming in his youth) impressed on him the importance of networking. Wales was interested in computer science , experimenting with source code on

3416-460: Was its chief manager. In 1998 he moved from Chicago to San Diego to work for Bomis, and then to St. Petersburg, Florida (where the company subsequently relocated). The staff at Bomis was originally about five employees. Its 2000 staff included programmer Toan Vo, Andrew McCague and system administrator Jason Richey; Wales employed his high-school friend and best man in his second wedding, Terry Foote, as advertising director. In June 2000, Bomis

3477-533: Was one of five network partners of Ask Jeeves . The majority of the revenue that came in to Bomis was generated through advertising. The most successful time for Bomis was during its venture as a member of the NBC web portal NBCi; this collapsed at the end of the dot-com bubble . Although Bomis is not an acronym, the name stemmed from "Bitter Old Men in Suits" (as Wales and Shell called themselves in Chicago). The site began as

3538-550: Was one of the first seven created when the Internet was first implemented in 1985; the others were .mil , .gov , .edu , .net , .int , and .org . The United States Department of Defense originally controlled the domain, but control was later transferred to the National Science Foundation as it was mainly used for non-defense-related purposes. With the creation of the World Wide Web in 1991, many companies began creating websites to sell their products. In 1994,

3599-470: Was originally intended only to generate draft articles for Nupedia, with finished articles moved to the latter. Misplaced Pages became a separate site days after the Nupedia advisory board opposed combining the two. In September 2001, Wales was simultaneously CEO of Bomis and co-founder of Misplaced Pages; Sanger was chief organizer of Misplaced Pages and editor-in-chief of Nupedia. Nupedia was encumbered by its peer-review system,

3660-502: Was photographed steering a yacht with a peaked cap , posing as a sea captain with a female professional model on either side of him. In the photograph, the women were wearing panties and T-shirts advertising Bomis. A subscription section, Bomis Premium, provided access to adult content and erotic material; A three-day trial was US$ 2.95. While Bomis Babes provided nude images of females to subscribers, Bomis Premium featured lesbian sexual practices and female anatomy. Bomis created

3721-489: Was transferred to a nascent non-profit organization, the Wikimedia Foundation , which was formed as a charitable institution to supervise Misplaced Pages and its associated wiki-based sites. When the foundation was established, its staff began to solicit public funding and Bomis turned Misplaced Pages over to the non-profit. All Bomis-owned hardware used to run Misplaced Pages-associated websites was donated to the Wikimedia Foundation, and Wales transferred Misplaced Pages-related copyrights from Bomis to

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