RIP WebTV - The Internet For The Rest of Us
Today, we mourn the passing of a truly amazing product. After 17 years of faithful service, WebTV (later known as MSNTV) has officially shut down for good. WebTV had a huge impact on my life, both personally and professionally, so I thought I'd take a moment to talk about what I loved about WebTV, what I'll miss, and what I'll never forget.
I also recommend reading Brad Hill's farewell to WebTV article. He experienced a different side of the company's story than I did, and his article is a great read.
An Inside View of the WebTV Revolution That Didn't Happen
- By Brad Hill (no relation)
I put the bulk of the post on my blog. But here are links to the relevant sections.
- My Introduction to WebTV
- WebTV's Original Mission
- WebTV Plus, DishPlayer and TiVo
- How WebTV Fell, but Refused to Die
- WebScissors and the Legacy of Jos
- The Legacy of WebTV
As WebTV fades to #191919,* I will always cherish the people it introduced me to, and the lessons it taught me.
* WebTV Trivia:
It can be really hard on the eyes to read contrasting text on a true-black background. Especially on a low-resolution TV screen.
So all of the "black" screens in the WebTV service actually used the shade #191919 instead of true black for the background color.