If Myspace was social media before social media, then Piczo was personal websites before WordPress and Wix. It was where thousands of teenagers first experimented with web design, creating chaotic pages full of sparkly text, scrolling marquees, and autoplaying pop-punk songs. It was loud, unfiltered, and ridiculously fun!
Unlike today’s rigid, minimalist web design, Piczo encouraged absolute customization. You didn’t need to know HTML (though many of us ended up learning some just to make things cooler). It was a playground for self-expression, where you could build entire sites dedicated to your interests—whether it was your favorite band, your friend group, or a million glittery graphics.
Piczo shut down in 2012, but its spirit lives on in the Sovereign Web and similar movements—a return to websites that feel personal rather than polished, where people build things for fun, not for algorithms.
👉 Did you have a Piczo page? What do you miss most about that era of personal websites? Would you like social web building platforms like Piczo to make a comeback? Let us know!
