weezer.com
 |
weezer.com is the official website for Weezer. The website currently features major announcements, a list of upcoming tour dates, links to their discography on most major streaming services, Weezer's social media pages, Weezerpedia, riverscuomo.com, and a webstore.
History
Formerly, the website hosted subpages including a media section (at one point known as the A/V Section), an information section (with subsections such as The Super-Chrono, the Recording History, and equipment history), and a forum (at one point known as the bboard). These have since been removed following a major redesign in 2015[citation needed].
The 1990s
During the '90s, weezer.com either did not exist or was a fan-owned domain, most information on this iteration of the website is scarce[citation needed]. The site that would eventually become weezer.com started as weezer.net, founded in late 1994 by Anuj Behal, Dan Gdowski, and Steve Carman, and assisted by a few others at times. Anuj Behal ran a server out of his dorm room at college in Chicago, which enabled weezer.net to host the earliest video clips of weezer on the web, such as the band's 1994 and 1995 TV appearances. At this time weezer.net was known as "the Rebel Weezer Alliance (RWA)"
Karl Koch was not 'online' until September 1998, but soon thereafter discussed with Anuj and Dan running a online version of Karl's Corner on weezer.net, to do real time updates of the band's activities. At the time however (1999), the band was mostly inactive and Karl was busy running the Weezer Fan Club, which went to his responsibility after the deaths of Fan Club founders Mykel and Carli Allan in July 1997.
The 2000s
'Karl's Corner' joined weezer.net in spring 2000, doing near continuous updates for the remainder of 2000, documenting the daily efforts to prepare material (and overcome corporate resistance) for the band's planned 3rd album.
At this time, the weezer.net crew looked into the status of weezer.com, and learned that a random fan had acquired it several years prior and was sitting on the domain, doing nothing with it. After some delicate negotiation (and some pressure from Geffen Records), the stage was set for Weezer to formally acquire the domain in January of 2001.[1]
Anuj and Dan (the only remaining original weezer.net partners by this point) agreed to transfer weezer.net's contents to weezer.com, while remaining as co-webmasters with Karl. In addition, Weezer acquired the weezer.net domain, to redirect it to weezer.com. Over the course of 2001, Karl, Dan and Anuj redesigned and relaunched the site to coincide with the Green Album's release, including new or revamped pages for tour info, merchandise store, means of contact, and their mailing list.[2] Also launched at the time of the Green album's release was a message boards section, the first official Weezer bboard.
In 2002, the site changed to include the cover art from Maladroit. Upon entering weezer.com, one was still directed to Karl's Corner.[3]
The site was relaunched again in 2005, and continued with various looks and functionality into the 2010s.
The 2010s
By the mid 2010s, social media had become more prominent, and 'Karls Corner' updates were now featured primarily on weezer's Facebook and Instagram pages (and later other apps, including TikTok), rendering "Karls Corner" a hashtag to be applied wherever appropriate. When Crush Music became Weezer's primary label, weezer.com evolved into a more "standard" band website with typical content, including tour dates and major announcements. Historical content has since migrated to Weezerpedia.