Viaweb was a

web-based application A web application (or web app) is application software that is accessed using a web browser. Web applications are delivered on the World Wide Web to users with an active network connection. History In earlier computing models like client-serve ...

that allowed users to build and host their own

online store Online shopping is a form of electronic commerce which allows consumers to directly buy goods or services from a seller over the Internet using a web browser or a mobile app. Consumers find a product of interest by visiting the website of the r ...

s with little technical expertise using a

web browser A web browser is application software for accessing websites. When 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 o ...

. The company was started in July 1995 by Paul Graham, Robert Morris (using the pseudonym "John McArtyem"),How a grad student trying to build the first botnet brought the Internet to its knees
by Timothy B. Lee, at ''

the Washington Post ''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large nati ...

''; published November 1, 2013; retrieved November 1, 2018 and

Trevor Blackwell Trevor Blackwell (born 4 November 1969, in Canada) is a computer programmer, engineer and entrepreneur based in Silicon Valley. Blackwell is a developer of humanoid robots. Dr. Blackwell is the founder and former CEO of Anybots and a partner at ...

. Graham claims Viaweb was the first

application service provider An application service provider (ASP) is a business providing application software generally through the Web. The ASP model The application software resides on the vendor's system and is accessed by users through a communication protocol. Alter ...

. Viaweb was also unusual for being partially written in the

Lisp programming language Lisp (historically LISP) is a family of programming languages with a long history and a distinctive, fully parenthesized prefix notation. Originally specified in 1960, Lisp is the second-oldest high-level programming language still in common u ...

. The software was originally called Webgen, but another company was using the same name, so the company renamed it to Viaweb, "because it worked ''via'' the '' Web''". In 1998,

Yahoo! Yahoo! (, styled yahoo''!'' in its logo) is an American web services provider. It is headquartered in Sunnyvale, California and operated by the namesake company Yahoo Inc., which is 90% owned by investment funds managed by Apollo Global Manage ...

Inc. bought Viaweb for 455,000 shares of Yahoo! stock, valued at about $49 million, and renamed it Yahoo! Store. Viaweb's example has been influential in

Silicon Valley Silicon Valley is a region in Northern California that serves as a global center for high technology and innovation. Located in the southern part of the San Francisco Bay Area, it corresponds roughly to the geographical areas San Mateo Coun ...

's entrepreneurial culture, largely due to Graham's widely read essays and his subsequent career as a successful venture capitalist.

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* * Discontinued Yahoo! services Internet properties established in 1995 Web applications Lisp (programming language) software Yahoo! acquisitions {{commerce-website-stub

See also

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External links