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"Looking Back"
May 20, 2000
Jessie Coffey
For some people their high school years were filled with great times. For others high school was an experience better forgotten. But once you can look back, at the good and the bad, everyone has at one time or another been a little curious as to what happened to everyone else. Classmates.com (http://www.classmates.com) can start your search.
Classmates.com started in 1996 after the founder undertook to find an old high school classmate. It now has nearly six million registered users and is growing at a rate of approximately twenty thousand users each day, worldwide. In order to use the site you must register. One option is to get a free membership that allows the user access to the majority of the site's functions. Alternatively, a user could pay the registration fee of twenty-five dollars for two years in order to utilize some of the more specialized features.
Members-both free and registered-are able to post a personal biographies, access a list of alumni from their own school, join a number of message boards, and search through the listings of other schools. As well, all users can browse the entertainment features, play the trivia games, explore the time capsule features, and access the "Value Club." The Value Club section of the web site provides links to other online services that users may be interested in, from buying art to online dating, to electronic greetings. There is also a list of web sites that offer free products and services. Registered users can go one step further by posting "Now" and "Then" photographs, receive an e-mail newsletter, and provide a link to a personal homepage.
Looking for your high school crush? Or checking up on an old archenemy? Classmates.com offers features that will help put you in touch with the people from your past. The site is, of course, still growing; if you don't find a listing for the person you're seeking, check back often. With 20,000 people joining up everyday it's only a matter of time until everyone is electronically linked to their high school days.
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