ArcGIS Resource Center

12/09/09–The Geography Network was first launched in 2000, a milestone in the history of online geographic information. The Geography Network has served many users and organizations with many maps and a wide variety of geographic content over the years.

With lots of changes over time to online GIS and geographic information and the technologies used to serve them, the Geography Network has been replaced by better alternatives to publish and find data (like ArcGIS Online). Much of the same exact content, and much more content that has been updated, can now be found and used in easier and better ways. So ESRI is planning to retire the Geography Network in late December 2009.

Here’s a look at population diversity with the old (ArcExplorer Web on the left connected to ArcIMS services) and the new (ArcGIS Online on the right connected to new content served as ArcGIS Server cached services). The snapshots alone don’t do justice to the fact that the user experience is now far better, easier, and much faster using ArcGIS Online.