with web.com . webs type web hosting founded 2001 headquarters silver spring maryland usa founder s haroon and zeki mokhtarzada services web hosting service employees 50 parent vistaprint divisions pagemodo contactme website www.webs.com alexa rank 546 april 2014 update 1 type of site web hosting available in english launched 2001 ; 15 years ago 2001 as freewebs 2 current status active webs formerly freewebs is a freemium primarily static site only web host founded in 2001 . the service offers free and premium website hosting plans and their own templated website building service . unusually webs does not offer any dynamic content support aside from their own dynamic apps despite offering ftp access and allowing html uploads . contents 1 history 2 product 3 other projects by webs employees 4 see also 5 references 6 external links history edit webs began in 2001 as freewebs just after the dot com bubble . it was a start up launched by brothers haroon and zeki mokhtarzada during their last year at the university of maryland college park with the help of their younger brother idris . 3 4 their goal was to enable anyone in the world to express themselves through the creation of their own website . 5 between 2003 and 2007 the company grew 1704 % . 6 by april 2007 the site recorded 18 million unique visitors a month . 4 on november 14 2008 freewebs changed its name to webs but users urls remained in the freewebs.com domain unless they chose to change over . now new websites are given subdomains of webs.com but the old freewebs.com sitename format still works even for new websites . users can also upgrade to a premium package and receive a custom web address without a webs subdomain . on december 28 2011 the online printing service vistaprint completed its acquisition of webs for 117.5 million . 7 on june 4 2012 webs released a new version of their sitebuilder product called sitebuilder3 . the new version includes a new drag and drop interface more customizable themes and simple social media integration . 8 in early 2013 webs underwent a redesign of the internal site which overhauled the user s building experience . it involved the removal of ads the modernization of the user interface and the addition of a step by step successful website checklist . on may 3 2013 webs introduced a seo booster a search engine optimization tool that helps users identify the best keyword phrases to build into their website in order to improve its position in search engine results . 9 product edit webs offers a drag and drop interface and professional looking themes for users creating a new website . for pro level websites there are additional e commerce features including unlimited webstore items and google and facebook advertising credits . all users can also link their websites to social media sites such as twitter and facebook . citation needed webs offers its own themes and site builder as well as a selection of its own dynamic apps such as a blog photo gallery or webstore . free websites are limited in features and also have a webs banner on the bottom of the screen . the company offers premium plans with more tools and features and also allows customers to buy custom domain names . other projects by webs employees edit webs created a unique culture that spawned innovation both inside and outside the company . in 2008 webs spun off a social gaming company called sgn which was incubated inside the company . shervin pishevar then president and coo of webs left webs to become full time chairman and ceo of sgn . sgn raised 15m from greylock founders fund and existing webs investors . shervin would go on to join menlo ventures and lead the series a round for uber before launching his own fund named sherpa ventures . mobwars one of the most popular early games on the facebook platform and a pioneer of in app purchases was created by dave maestri while still at webs . brandon leonardo a webs developer based in the bay area went on to cofound instacart . andrew sutherland an early webs employee went on to create quizlet a popular online quiz service . see also edit comparison of free web hosting services references edit webs.com site info . alexa internet . retrieved 2014 04 01 . freewebs.com whois dns & domain info domaintools . whois . retrieved 2016 07 16 . ceo haroon mokhtarzada interview . social networking watch . april 3 2009 . a b hart kim april 9 2007 . venture capital drawn to freewebs . the washington post . retrieved 2008 03 05 . sandoval greg april 26 2007 . the free speech fundamentals of freewebs . cnet news . retrieved 2008 03 05 . webs.com freewebs ranks 119th fastest growing company in north america on deloitte s 2008 technology fast 500 . reuters . november 12 2008 . mitroff sarah . vistaprint completes 117.5 m acquisition of diy website builder webs inc. . venturebeat . retrieved 22 august 2012 . announcing the newest version of the webs sitebuilder . retrieved 4 june 2012 . introducing webs seo booster . retrieved 3 may 2013 . external links edit official website retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title webs web hosting & oldid 740678697 categories companies established in 2001companies based in marylandweb hostingfree web hosting servicessocial networking servicescompanies based in silver spring marylandhidden categories articles containing potentially dated statements from april 2014all articles containing potentially dated statementsall articles with unsourced statementsarticles with unsourced statements from june 2013 navigation menu personal tools not logged intalkcontributionscreate accountlog in namespaces article talk variants views read edit view history more search navigation main pagecontentsfeatured contentcurrent eventsrandom articledonate to wikipediawikipedia store interaction helpabout wikipediacommunity portalrecent changescontact page tools what links hererelated changesupload filespecial pagespermanent linkpage informationwikidata itemcite this page print export create a bookdownload as pdfprintable version languages espa ol portugu ssuomisvenska edit links this page was last modified on 22 september 2016 at 15 48 . text is available under the creative commons attribution sharealike license ; additional terms may apply . by using this site you agree to the terms of use and privacy policy . wikipedia is a registered trademark of the wikimedia foundation inc. a non profit organization . privacy policy about wikipedia disclaimers contact wikipedia developers cookie statement mobile view