About this web site
Before there was a
Wikipedia there was a theodora.com, with thousands of informational pages on many topics.
This web site was started in 1997 as a mirror to
immigration-usa.com, a US immigration software business web site, and named after the owner's daughter
Theodora Coutsoukis. From
software sales and then
merchandise, the web site eventually developed into an informational web site consisting of millions of pages.
Owned by
ITA,
Photius Coutsoukis's company, and an
internet pioneer since the early 1990's, the web site was transformed as a consequence of the way the Internet developed, and the way people used it.
While trying to sell software online, the owner quickly realized that users were browsing the Internet for information, and that the key to attracting visitors, i.e., prospective customers, was to make a lot of relevant information available to them.
So, the first set of informational pages dealt with US immigration, a topic relevant to sales of ITA's immigration software. Then came other information of international interest, such as
Flags of All Countries, the world's first flags website. Inquiries from users lead to setting up a flag sales web site.
Within a few years, as more and more informational web pages were developed, and because of the great popularity of its pages, the company changed its emphasis from selling software and merchandise to selling advertising.
In short, ITA evolved into a publisher, deriving most of its revenue from advertising sales.
Today, theodora.com is one of a network of tightly knit informational web sites that contain vast amounts of information. A primary portal for these is
Countries Of The World.
Others include:
