They used to be part of your ISP. You got a usenet server, and a mail server and a web server with a certain amount of space, just as part of signing up.

This meant that everyone had one, you didn't have to go sign up somewhere else. You still could if you wanted to have a URL that didn't have your ISP's name in it.

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malfist 2 days ago | parent [-]

Did they? I've been around for ages (I know the dial up tone by heart). My early ISPs at best offered a mailbox (not a mail server), no web server, Usenet was extra.

And few people used the ISP mailbox because you couldn't take it with you when you left. Hell, I got my gmail during the invite only era

	▲	bitwize 2 days ago \| parent [-]
		I also got a gmail during the invite only. I was so stoked, I drew a picture of Link (from Wind Waker) holding a Gmail icon over his head in his triumphant "got a new item!" pose. Some ISPs from back in the day did offer a few megs of space for a web site with a ~username url that you could use to build a personal site. But by the late 90s this practice began to wane as services like GeoShitties became the norm.