I used Geocities. I think it still exists in Japan.
Back then, HTML templates/generators were very mainstream.
Nowadays that use case was largely replaced by what we now call blogs. Many of those websites were in fact proto-blogs.
Later, as bandwidth increased, digital cameras became mainstream and processing power increased, photo sharing was added as common use case. Try downloading a 2 megapixel+ PNG with a dial-up connection... very slow. Now we take it was granted.
Now in addition to blogs, you also have Google Sites, wikia, and countless others... including Wikipedia.
Microsoft in 2017: "Microsoft <3 Linux! It's totally not cancer, hehe. Please buy our products, we won't monopolize anymore we promise"