It offered 12 megabytes of server space for AOL subscribers to publish their own websites, and included a 10-step form-driven page creator called 1-2-3 Publish[2][3] and a WYSIWYG online website builder called Easy Designer,[4] neither of which required knowledge of HTML (AOLpress had been AOL's website builder before the introduction of AOL Hometown).
Then it, with the help of the Internet Archive and other activist websites, saved as much of GeoCities as possible when it became the next "critical part of online history"[8] and "important outlet for personal expression on the Web"[11] to be shut down with short notice in October 2009.
Before Hometown, AOL made 2 megs of webspace available for each user name, and had tools "Personal Publisher II" and "AOLPress".
[citation needed] Official online information as to when AOL Hometown started out is scarce.
Thus, it contained an unknown number of websites that had been online for longer than the existence of AOL Hometown itself.