ABBALINK

Launched 27 January 1998. ABBALINK‘s sole purpose was to collect up every known ABBA site on the internet. Initially a part of my first ABBA website The ABBA Phenomenon in Australia, ABBALINK became an independent site on 24 July 1998, hosted at FortuneCity.

ABBALINK was selected as Site Of The Month for June 1999 on ABBA – The Site (the official ABBA website), and was also recommended in the Official International Agnetha, Benny, Björn, Frida Fan Club Magazine  and the ABBAMAIL Internet Companion. Renowned ABBA historian Carl Magnus Palm described it as “A myriad of ABBA sites” .

ABBALINK‘s last update was on 19 March 2000. On 1 April 2000, it was superseded by ABBA World.

ABBA World

On 1 April 2000, ABBA World was launched, after being under development between October 1998 and March 2000.

ABBA World expanded on ABBALINK, still featuring links to every known ABBA site, but also a lot more: a database of every song recorded or performed by ABBA, a selected discography, ABBA facts, some ABBA-related musings, and a lot more.

The website name, and the title, were inspired by the late-90s logo for Walt Disney World in Florida, which used a stylised version of Disney’s signature, adding “World” in Times New Roman typeface.

ABBA World received much recognition – FortuneCity selected it as a Featured Site; It’s On The Net magazine listed it as their recommended ABBA site, calling it “excellent”; Australian TV current affairs program 60 Minutes linked it when they featured at ABBA story in June 2001 (coincidentally, my other ABBA site, The ABBA Phenomenon in Australia, was the only other ABBA site linked); and most proudly, it was awarded Most Comprehensive Site 2003 by the Domain of the Diva.

ABBA World was the first site featured in the ABBA On The Web column in the Official International Agnetha, Benny, Björn, Frida Fan Club Magazine (December 2000).

At its launch ABBA World had its own domain name abbaworld.net, until registration unfortunately lapsed in May 2002 and the domain name was cybersquatted.

ABBA World was hosted at FortuneCity (at the same address as ABBALINK had been), until 8 September 2003 when it moved to a new host (Server101) and a new domain name, abba-world.net.

ABBA World, version 1 was last updated on 5 February 2004.

ABBA World – cancelled upgrade

The first planned upgrade of ABBA World was developed April and July 2002, until circumstances and a lack of interest (at the time) saw this upgrade die.

Some ideas for features, concept, set up and formatting for this version have carried over to the final version 2 upgrade.

ABBA World – version 2

After almost four years, ABBA World gets a revamped look, improved navigation, upgraded existing sections and many new features. After the first abandoned upgrade attempt in 2002, version 2 was developed between December 2003 and February 2004.

Many of the new features had been in the pipeline since the first version of ABBA World was under development, but haven’t come to completion until now. Others were inspired by the need for new information to be shared among ABBA’s fans around the world.

ABBA World version 2 was launched on 29 February 2004.

ABBA Omnibus

On 1 November 2010 ABBA World became ABBA Omnibus, to avoid the inevitable confusion with the ABBAWORLD touring exhibition. As soon as the exhibition was first announced I knew I would have to do something about my site, but it took over a year to come up with a satisfactory new name, and to work out how to make the necessary changes to the various interrelated sites (the blog and social media accounts).

The contents of the site remained essentially the same, with some minor formatting changes.

ABBA Omnibus was launched on 1 November 2010.

ABBA Omnibus – version 2

Since ABBA Omnibus was launched in 2010, smartphones and tablets have become the primary way that people view the internet. A new version of the site was needed to be compatible with all devices. Work started on the new site on WordPress in March 2023.

Part way through the upgrade, the template I was using developed a fault, so I had to find another template that worked in the way I wanted. I was pleased to find one that I actually liked better.

ABBA Omnibus version 2 was launched on 6 July 2023. Due to the size and complexity of the site, uploading the new site has been staggered, with some sections transitioning after the relaunch.

Ian Cole | Sydney Australia | July 2023