ChickClick was an American website for women that was online from 1998 to 2002. It was created by Heidi Swanson as a web portal for websites created by young women. The website also served as an online community, with a message board and Internet radio program called ChickClick Radio. It also provided a free e-mail and web hosting service, known as Chickmail and Chickpages respectively.
After ChickClick's launch in February 1998, it merged with EstroNet in October 1998. After the dot-com bubble burst in 2000, the website became defunct in 2002 and now redirects to IGN's website.
During its years online, ChickClick was associated with zine culture and third-wave feminism. It was nominated for two Webby Awards in 2001.
Wanting to create alternative media for young women online, Heidi Swanson created ChickClick when she was 25 years old.[1] She pitched the idea to Chris Anderson, the head of Imagine Media who also owned IGN, requesting a computer to allow herself and her younger sister, Heather, to build the website.[1][2] At the time, Swanson had quit her job as a web designer after working for six weeks due to focusing on her Master's Degree at Stanford University.[1]
Shortly after ChickClick's initial launch in February 1998,[3] it merged with EstroNet, a network of female-oriented Internet properties, in October.[4]ChickClick then divided its content between MissClick, targeted towards teenagers, and EstroClick, targeted towards adults.[5]: 255 Afterwards, ChickClick began expanding on its web services, such as its free e-mail and web hosting services.[4][6] Swanson explained that the web hosting, in addition to ChickClick's message boards, was to scaffold young women into using technology to both create and consume content.[7]
In February 1999, ChickClick became managed by Affiliation Networks, a company created as an offshoot of Imagine Media focusing on its online properties,[2] whose name was later changed into Snowball in August 1999.[8] In addition, ChickClick sponsored the music festival Lilith Fair.[3] The website also had plans to launch news channels, including SheWire, a technology-related news channel aimed at women.[3]
In 2000, ChickClick launched an online radio program called ChickClick Radio.[9] Following the dot-com bubble burst, ChickClick faced several employee lay-offs, and both Swanson sisters left the staff to work on Kibu.com.[10] In 2002, Snowball announced that they were closing ChickClick, citing "changes in the economy" as its reason as a reference to its financial losses.[11]
ChickClick was launched as a zine and web portal aimed at women, featuring links to content that parodied mainstream teen and women's magazines.[6] Websites that were part of ChickClick's network included the Disgruntled Housewife;[1][6] Riotgrrl;[1] GrrlGamer;[1] and Bimbionic.[12]: 41 Unlike general women's magazines at the time, ChickClick was seen as "edgy",[6][12]: 41 with personal content and an aesthetic combining riot grrrl visuals with "reclaimed girl culture" such as Hello Kitty and "ironic" artwork from the 1950s.[12]: 41
ChickClick also featured a message board, where users could participate.[3] It also had a free e-mail and web hosting service that was powered by Lycos.[4][13] The e-mail service Chickmail and web hosting service Chickpages were advertised to the teenage demographic, while Estromail and Estropages were advertised to the adult demographic.[4] Websites hosted on Chickpages and Estropages were part of ChickClick's network, and the owners of ChickClick would profit from the advertisements.[7]
Like ChickClick, EstroNet was created as a collaborative network of websites and zines aimed at women.[14] It was intended to drive traffic towards independent websites created by women.[14] In addition, Heather Irwin, one of its founders, planned for EstroNet to host original content, such as spotlighting women in the technology industry.[14] EstroNet's member sites included Maxi, its first member;[15] and HUES (acronym for Hear Us Emerging Sisters), founded by Ophira Edut and aimed at women of color;[7] Bust, a print zine;[14][16] Gurl.com;[14][16] Minxmag, an online zine sponsored by Pseudo.com;[14][16] Women's Room, an online zine on Tripod;[14][16] and Wench.[16]
The founders of EstroNet were familiar with Heidi Swanson since 1995, and as ChickClick had corporate funding, which EstroNet lacked, they allowed Swanson to take over the website.[17]: 431 After merging with ChickClick in October 1998,[4] EstroNet's original content was divided into its own category, EstroClick, aimed at older women.[5]: 255
In 1998, ChickClick received more than a million visits a month.[1] Entertainment Weekly gave the website a B+, stating that both ChickClick and EstroNet had "useful information, provocative thought, and handsome visuals laid out with clarity and taste" but that its effect can be hard to take seriously.[18] ChickClick was also one of the websites criticized for having sexual information, and in 1999, anti-pornography advocates cited concerns that this would lead to more underage sexual activity and cause harmful development in young girls.[19]
ChickClick has been used as a study of zine culture and women's media in the 1990s.[7][21] Scholars Tasha Oren and Andrea Press named ChickClick as one of the websites that encouraged female participation on the Internet.[7] They also noticed that while ChickClick was active as part of the zine culture, it was branded as alternative content for women and separated itself from radical feminist zines.[7]
The Web ring Chickclick also has a similar section, called "Chickpages"... Chickclick use[s] a service offered by Lycos. The offer to users to create their own Web sites indicates that the editors imagine their readers/users not only as a target group at the receiving end but also as active creators of messages and new media content. The result is the creation of networks among users.