About SFGATE FacebookTwitterEmail SFGATE is your portal to the Bay Area and California's most important news and fascinating features.Douglas Zimmerman/SFGate Launched in 1994, SFGATE.com was one of the first large-market media sites in the world and served as the exclusive digital home of the San Francisco Chronicle for 19 years. The site, which was initially known as The Gate until officially becoming SFGATE in 1998, was co-founded by Allen Weiner and John Coate, and was the first news site to offer searchable archives, classifieds, and open public forums. In addition to the Chronicle, SFGATE also published content from KRON-TV and the San Francisco Examiner up until the early 2000s, when Hearst Corp. acquired The Chronicle and SFGATE, divested the Examiner and ended the association with KRON-TV, which was sold separately.