All projects

MySpace A place for friends 2003–now Social Networks RealPlayer Buffering… buffering… 1995–now Media Players BS.Player Still shipping, about one release every three years 2000–now Media Players i-mode The world's first mass-market mobile internet, launched in Japan in 1999 with 176 tiny pictures that became emoji, switched off in March 2026 1999–2026 Online Services Open Diary Invented the comment, in 1998 1998–2026 Blogging & Web Publishing Anthem BioWare's Iron Man shooter, abandoned in 2021 and unplugged in 2026 2019–2026 Games AOL Dial-Up The modem noise stopped, AOL did not 1991–2025 Online Services Typepad Where the BBC and Time blogged, deleted after 22 years 2003–2025 Blogging & Web Publishing goo.gl Google's link shortener, and the day old links died 2009–2025 Web Technologies & Tools Pocket Eighteen years of saved-for-later, gone before you read it 2007–2025 Online Services MultiVersus Batman vs Bugs Bunny: 20 million players, then two shutdowns 2022–2025 Games Skype The app that made calling the world free 2003–2025 Messengers Humane AI Pin The $699 phone killer that HP switched off ten months in 2024–2025 Gadgets & Hardware MiniDisc Sony's recordable disc for the Walkman age, outlived by the iPod and its own fans 1992–2025 Storage & Media Formats Google Jamboard Google's $5,000 whiteboard, retired to make room for Figma and Miro 2017–2024 Gadgets & Hardware Foursquare City Guide The check-in app that made mayors and badges, split into two, then closed to focus on the half it had spun off 2009–2024 Mobile Apps Veoh The video site that beat Universal in court, went bankrupt two months later, and then took fourteen more years to actually die 2005–2024 Video & Streaming Concord Sony's $40 hero shooter, online for fourteen days 2024–2024 Games Chromecast The $35 dongle that sold over 100 million, retired for a box 2013–2024 Gadgets & Hardware Redbox A dollar a night from a vending machine, until the lights went out mid-rental 2002–2024 E-commerce & Retail ICQ The messenger that gave you a number 1996–2024 Messengers Wii U 13.5 million sold, and the ideas all survived it 2012–2024 Consoles & Handhelds Google Podcasts Google's plain podcast app, six years old when it was folded into YouTube Music 2018–2024 Music Streaming Amazon Drive Amazon's cloud locker, unlimited for $60 a year until it was not, closed at the end of 2023 in favour of Amazon Photos 2011–2023 Online Services Omegle Talk to strangers, for fourteen years, until it could not be made safe 2009–2023 Messengers Windows CE Microsoft's small Windows for handhelds, set-top boxes and cash registers, alive from Comdex 1996 to a quiet end of support in 2023 1996–2023 Operating Systems Google Glass The face computer the public rejected 2013–2023 VR & AR Google Domains Google's no-nonsense domain registrar, out of beta for one year before it was sold to Squarespace 2014–2023 Online Services Cortana Microsoft's assistant, named after a Halo AI, retired for Copilot 2014–2023 Online Services Ello "You Are Not a Product", then it took the venture money 2014–2023 Social Networks Knockout City Dodgeball as a live-service game: five million players, then a studio too small to keep it alive 2021–2023 Games Babylon's Fall PlatinumGames' live-service game, down to one player on Steam within months 2022–2023 Games Google Stadia The future of gaming, cancelled 2019–2023 Game Platforms & Services Windows RT Windows for ARM tablets that could not run Windows programs 2012–2023 Operating Systems Atom Killed by an editor built on the framework it invented 2014–2022 Developer Tools Google Hangouts One messenger to rule them all, briefly 2013–2022 Messengers Google Duo Google's FaceTime, launched with a Knock Knock, folded into Meet after six years 2016–2022 Messengers Internet Explorer The browser that won the war and lost the peace 1995–2022 Web Browsers iPod 1,000 songs in your pocket 2001–2022 Gadgets & Hardware IGTV Instagram's vertical answer to YouTube, launched with an orange button nobody pressed and folded into Reels 2018–2022 Video & Streaming BlackBerry OS The keyboard that ran the world 1999–2022 Operating Systems Popcorn Time Piracy with a Netflix interface, killed twice, faded once 2014–2022 Video & Streaming BlackBerry 10 The reboot that arrived in 2013 and was switched off in 2022 2013–2022 Operating Systems BlackBerry PlayBook RIM's seven-inch tablet, shipped without email, written down by half a billion, switched off in 2022 2011–2022 Phones & Tablets Google Toolbar The search box in the browser, with the PageRank meter, from Internet Explorer 5 to a quiet death in 2021 2000–2021 Web Technologies & Tools Microsoft Silverlight The Flash rival that outlived its purpose 2007–2021 Web Technologies & Tools Houseparty The lockdown living room, closed by Fortnite's owner 2016–2021 Mobile Apps Twitter Fleets Twitter's disappearing posts, built to make quiet users braver, dead in under nine months 2020–2021 Social Networks Yahoo Answers The internet's strangest Q&A community 2005–2021 Reference & Learning Periscope Live from anywhere, until the money ran out 2015–2021 Video & Streaming Microsoft Edge Legacy Microsoft's fresh start that lasted one engine 2015–2021 Web Browsers Google Cardboard Virtual reality from a folded box and a phone, ten million viewers, then quietly shelved 2014–2021 VR & AR Loon Alphabet's internet balloons, nine years in the stratosphere and one commercial customer, grounded in 2021 2013–2021 Online Services Adobe Flash The plugin that animated the web 1996–2020 Web Technologies & Tools FarmVille The game that colonised Facebook 2009–2020 Games Google Cloud Print Print from anything to any printer over the internet: ten years in beta, then switched off at the end of 2020 2010–2020 Online Services Oculus Go The $199 standalone headset Facebook dropped two years later for the Quest 2018–2020 VR & AR Yahoo Groups Where the internet organised itself 2001–2020 Email & Groups Google Play Music Your music locker, repossessed 2011–2020 Music Streaming Quibi $1.75 billion, six months, gone 2020–2020 Video & Streaming Samsung Gear VR The Oculus-powered headset you snapped a Galaxy into, retired when standalone VR arrived 2014–2020 VR & AR Mixer The $100 million assault on Twitch 2016–2020 Video & Streaming Jet.com Walmart paid $3 billion, then switched it off 2015–2020 E-commerce & Retail Wunderlist The to-do app Microsoft bought to bury 2010–2020 Mobile Apps Essential Phone Android's creator builds a phone: $699, titanium, and about 90,000 buyers 2017–2020 Phones & Tablets Hipmunk The flight search that sorted by agony, bought by a corporate expense company and switched off while its founders were trying to buy it back 2010–2020 Online Services Microsoft Security Essentials The free antivirus Microsoft gave Windows XP, Vista and 7 users in 2009, retired with Windows 7 in January 2020 2009–2020 Desktop Software Windows Phone The tiles nobody wrote apps for 2010–2019 Operating Systems Google Fusion Tables The free tool that let journalists and researchers turn a spreadsheet into a map, retired by Google in 2019 with no direct replacement 2009–2019 Web Technologies & Tools Google Daydream Google's soft-fabric VR headset for Pixels, dropped after three years 2016–2019 VR & AR Amazon Dash Button A $4.99 button that ordered detergent, launched on the eve of April Fools' Day 2015–2019 Gadgets & Hardware Ouya The $99 console Kickstarter wanted to exist 2013–2019 Consoles & Handhelds BlackBerry Messenger BBM: PINs, the D and the R, the messenger that made the BlackBerry, licensed to an Indonesian company and closed in 2019 2005–2019 Messengers YouTube Gaming YouTube's Twitch rival, a separate app and site for game video, merged back into YouTube after four years 2015–2019 Video & Streaming Google+ The social network everyone was signed up to and nobody used 2011–2019 Social Networks Inbox by Gmail The better Gmail that Gmail ate 2014–2019 Email & Groups Inbox by Gmail Google's attempt to replace its own mail app, loved by the people who used it and closed after four and a half years 2014–2019 Email & Groups Google Allo Google's WhatsApp that wasn't 2016–2019 Messengers PlayStation Vita The best handheld nobody supported 2011–2019 Consoles & Handhelds HipChat The team chat that was there before Slack, bought by Atlassian, renamed Stride, and then sold to Slack to be switched off 2010–2019 Messengers Wii Shop Channel Nintendo's first online store, the Virtual Console and WiiWare behind an elevator-music jingle, closed after twelve years 2006–2019 Game Platforms & Services WildStar The cartoon sci-fi MMO built for hardcore raiders, gone in four years 2014–2018 Games Path The social network with a 50-friend limit, big in Indonesia, closed by Kakao 2010–2018 Social Networks LawBreakers Cliff Bleszinski's gravity-defying shooter, launched into Overwatch's shadow 2017–2018 Games Google Goggles Point your phone at a landmark, a book or a wine label and Google told you what it was, eight years before Lens replaced it 2009–2018 Mobile Apps Musical.ly The lip-sync app that became TikTok 2014–2018 Video & Streaming Go90 Verizon's free mobile video app for teenagers, over a billion dollars spent, closed after 34 months 2015–2018 Video & Streaming Yahoo Messenger Booted from the chat room one last time 1998–2018 Messengers StumbleUpon The serendipity button 2002–2018 Web Technologies & Tools Pebble The smartwatch Kickstarter built, and Fitbit buried 2013–2018 Gadgets & Hardware Klout The site that scored your online influence from 1 to 100, sold for $200 million and switched off the week GDPR arrived 2008–2018 Social Networks Storify The tool newsrooms used to turn tweets into stories, bought twice and closed by Adobe in 2018, taking thousands of embedded stories with it 2010–2018 Online Services Miitomo Nintendo's first smartphone app: a Mii that asked you questions and told your friends the answers, switched off two years later 2016–2018 Mobile Apps Nextbit Robin The cloud-first Android phone from Kickstarter, bought by Razer and cut off from its cloud a year later 2015–2018 Phones & Tablets Groove Music Microsoft's music service after Zune, renamed twice and handed to Spotify 2012–2017 Music Streaming AIM Away messages and slammed doors 1997–2017 Messengers CodePlex Microsoft's open source home, closed because GitHub won 2006–2017 Developer Tools Vidme The YouTube alternative for creators fleeing the adpocalypse, out of money in December 2017; its domain now points at porn 2014–2017 Video & Streaming Juicero The $400 Wi-Fi juicer that squeezed proprietary bags, and the bags you could squeeze by hand 2016–2017 Gadgets & Hardware Firebug Gave every browser the F12 key, then merged into them 2006–2017 Developer Tools Miiverse Nintendo's hand-drawn social network 2012–2017 Social Networks LoveFilm Europe's Netflix by post: DVDs in red envelopes, bought by Amazon and closed disc by disc 2002–2017 E-commerce & Retail Kinect "You are the controller": the fastest-selling gadget of 2010, unplugged by 2017 2010–2017 Gadgets & Hardware X Xbox Live Indie Games The Xbox 360 store where anyone with $99 and XNA could sell a game, from Community Games in 2008 to the last day in October 2017 2008–2017 Game Platforms & Services Nokia Lumia Nokia's bright Windows Phones, and the bet that took the company down with them 2011–2017 Phones & Tablets Shareaza The client whose own name was stolen 2002–2017 File Sharing Half.com It once bought a whole town for its name 2000–2017 E-commerce & Retail Google Blob Emoji Android's yellow blobs, the only emoji set that looked like nothing else, flattened into circles by Android 8.0 in 2017 2013–2017 Web Technologies & Tools Google Talk Gchat, the messenger inside your inbox 2005–2017 Messengers Delicious The web's shared memory 2003–2017 Web Technologies & Tools Yik Yak Anonymous, local, and impossible to moderate 2013–2017 Social Networks About.com Seven hundred human guides, four owners, one quiet rebrand 1997–2017 Reference & Learning Google Spaces Google's small-group sharing app that lived for eleven months, which was short even for Google 2016–2017 Messengers Nintendo DSi The DS with two cameras, an SD slot and its own download shop, which Nintendo closed in 2017 and took DSiWare with it 2008–2017 Consoles & Handhelds Club Penguin A generation's first social network, with penguins 2005–2017 Games DMOZ The web, catalogued by hand 1998–2017 Search Engines & Directories App.net Users paid for it, and it still was not enough 2012–2017 Social Networks Photosynth Microsoft Live Labs' 3D photo stitcher, a jaw-dropping demo in 2006, a website from 2008, switched off in February 2017 2006–2017 Photo Sharing Parse 500,000 apps had their back end switched off 2011–2017 Developer Tools Vine Six seconds, looped forever 2013–2017 Video & Streaming Windows Movie Maker The free video editor a generation learned on, dropped by Microsoft in 2017 2000–2017 Desktop Software Windows Live Mail The free desktop mail program that replaced Outlook Express, cut off from Outlook.com in 2016 and left to die in 2017 2007–2017 Email & Groups Windows Live Writer The blog editor bloggers loved, from Onfolio to Windows Essentials 2012, abandoned by Microsoft and rescued as open source 2006–2017 Desktop Software Yo An app that said one word, raised a million dollars, and became the whole 2014 app economy in miniature 2014–2016 Mobile Apps What.CD The best music library ever built, erased in an afternoon 2007–2016 File Sharing Panoramio The Spanish photo map Google bought for Google Earth and closed a decade later, taking millions of geotagged pictures off the map 2005–2016 Photo Sharing Google Nexus Android the way Google meant it, until Google wanted the whole phone 2010–2016 Phones & Tablets Meerkat The live streaming app that owned SXSW 2015 until Twitter bought Periscope and cut off its friend graph 2015–2016 Video & Streaming Sunrise Calendar The calendar app everyone recommended, bought by Microsoft for about $100 million and dismantled into Outlook 2013–2016 Mobile Apps Project Ara Google's modular phone, demoed for three years and never sold 2013–2016 Gadgets & Hardware Firefox OS The web as an operating system, aimed at $25 phones 2013–2016 Operating Systems iMesh Settled, went legal, outlived everyone, left without a word 1999–2016 File Sharing Picasa Everyone's first photo library 2002–2016 Photo Sharing Skype Qik The live phone-video pioneer Skype paid $150 million for, shut down, relaunched as a messaging app, and shut down again 2007–2016 Mobile Apps Mailbox The email app with the famous reservation queue, bought by Dropbox for about $100 million and shut down three years later 2013–2016 Email & Groups Songza Playlists for the moment you were in, picked by people rather than an algorithm, until Google bought it and melted it into Play Music 2011–2016 Music Streaming Google Code Google's free host for open source projects, killed by GitHub and by the spammers who moved in when everyone else left 2006–2016 Developer Tools Yahoo Screen Yahoo's video hub, home of the SNL archive, Community season six and a $42 million write-down, closed in January 2016 2011–2016 Video & Streaming Rdio The prettiest streaming service that ever lost 2010–2015 Music Streaming Beats Music Dr. Dre and Jimmy Iovine's curated streaming service, bought by Apple after four months and folded into Apple Music 2014–2015 Music Streaming Zune Microsoft's answer to the iPod, five years late 2006–2015 Gadgets & Hardware Yahoo! Pipes Visual programming for the web, twelve years before it was fashionable 2007–2015 Developer Tools Amazon Fire Phone Amazon's 3D phone, $199 in July, 99 cents by September, $170 million written off by October 2014–2015 Phones & Tablets Blip Where web series lived before YouTube channels, bought by Maker Studios and deleted a year later 2005–2015 Video & Streaming Emojli The social network where your username and every message had to be emoji, built as a joke, closed eleven months later 2014–2015 Social Networks Windows Media Center The living-room PC that arrived before streaming 2002–2015 Media Players Friendster The social network that came first 2002–2015 Social Networks Xfire The gamer's buddy list 2004–2015 Game Platforms & Services Secret Anonymous confessions from your own contacts, worth $100 million for about a year 2014–2015 Mobile Apps Grooveshark All the music, none of the licences 2007–2015 Music Streaming OnLive Cloud gaming, a decade too early 2010–2015 Game Platforms & Services Aperture Apple's professional photo manager, the first of its kind, dropped for Photos and finally unable to launch 2005–2015 Desktop Software FriendFeed The feed that taught Facebook to Like 2007–2015 Social Networks PlayStation Home Sony's empty metaverse, fifteen years early 2008–2015 Game Platforms & Services Ovi Nokia's "door" to internet services, an app store, maps, mail and music brand for the Symbian years, dropped in 2011 and closed for good in 2015 2007–2015 Online Services MSN Messenger The sound of nudges after school 1999–2014 Messengers Orkut Brazil's living room, built in a 20% project 2004–2014 Social Networks Justin.tv One man's life stream that became Twitch 2007–2014 Video & Streaming Readmill The Berlin e-book reader that put your highlights in the margin for other people to see, bought by Dropbox for its team and closed within three months 2011–2014 Mobile Apps PlayStation Portable Sony's first handheld, 80 million sold, the UMD disc, the PSP Go that nobody bought, and a store that closed twice 2004–2014 Consoles & Handhelds Springpad The smart notebook that turned everything you saved into something useful, loved by five million people and unable to pay for itself 2008–2014 Online Services GameSpy The middleware that ran multiplayer, then took it away 1996–2014 Game Platforms & Services Technorati The search engine that ranked the blogosphere, whose Authority score every blogger checked daily, quietly switched off in 2014 when the conversation moved to Twitter 2002–2014 Search Engines & Directories Bump Tap two phones together to swap contacts: 125 million downloads, a Google acquisition, and a shutdown three months later 2009–2014 Mobile Apps Blockbuster Turned down Netflix for $50 million, and one store survives 1985–2014 E-commerce & Retail Symbian Ran most of the world's smartphones, then burned with the platform 1998–2014 Operating Systems Winamp It really whips the llama's ass 1997–2013 Media Players Everpix The photo service that solved the problem everyone had and ran out of money anyway, and then published its entire post-mortem for others to learn from 2011–2013 Photo Sharing Turntable.fm The site where strangers took turns DJing to a room of cartoon avatars, killed in 2013 by the price of the music it played 2011–2013 Music Streaming iGoogle Your homepage, back when you had one 2005–2013 Web Technologies & Tools Sparrow The mail app people happily paid for, bought by Google and left to rot in the App Store 2011–2013 Email & Groups isoHunt One man, seven years of litigation, $110 million 2003–2013 File Sharing MSN TV WebTV: the internet on your television through a set-top box, bought by Microsoft in 1997, switched off in 2013 1996–2013 Online Services Google Latitude See where your friends are on a map: Google's location sharing, four years ahead of its time and folded into Google+ in 2013 2009–2013 Mobile Apps Bebo The $850 million write-off 2005–2013 Social Networks Astrid The to-do app with the friendly squid, four million users, bought by Yahoo and closed 96 days later 2008–2013 Mobile Apps AltaVista Search, before Google 1995–2013 Search Engines & Directories Google Reader The web, in one place 2005–2013 Web Technologies & Tools Posterous Blogging by sending an email, bought and switched off 2008–2013 Blogging & Web Publishing Formspring Ask me anything, anonymously: the Q and A site that reached 30 million accounts, then drowned in the harassment its own anonymity produced 2009–2013 Social Networks Audiogalaxy Killed by a filter it agreed to install itself 1998–2013 File Sharing Seesmic Loic Le Meur's video Twitter that became a Twitter client that became a Salesforce app and was finally sold to HootSuite for its users 2007–2013 Social Networks Color Forty-one million dollars before launch, an app nobody understood, and a shutdown within two years: the cautionary tale of the 2011 app boom 2011–2012 Mobile Apps iTunes Ping Apple built a social network inside iTunes, launched it without Facebook and without the songs, and closed it after two years of silence 2010–2012 Social Networks Google Video Google's own YouTube, made redundant the day Google bought YouTube 2005–2012 Video & Streaming Google Notebook Clip text and links from the web into online notebooks, from a 2006 browser extension to a 2012 export into Docs 2006–2012 Online Services Digg The front page of the web, until v4 2004–2012 Social Networks MeeGo Nokia and Intel's Linux phone, abandoned the year its best device shipped 2010–2012 Operating Systems Meebo Every messenger, in one browser tab 2005–2012 Messengers MobileMe The Apple service Steve Jobs apologised for 2008–2012 Online Services Xperia Play The PlayStation phone: a slide-out gamepad on an Android handset, one model, one year, no Android 4.0 2011–2012 Phones & Tablets Windows Mobile A tiny Windows with a Start button, reset to zero by its own maker 2000–2012 Operating Systems Knol Google's signed, ad-sharing answer to Wikipedia, opened in 2008 and closed in 2012 2008–2012 Reference & Learning Google Wave Email, reinvented too hard 2009–2012 Web Technologies & Tools Picnik The photo editor in your browser, bought by Google and closed two years later 2007–2012 Photo Sharing Gowalla The prettier check-in app from Austin that lost the SXSW war to Foursquare, was bought by Facebook for its team and switched off three months later 2009–2012 Mobile Apps Megaupload The file locker the FBI took down 2005–2012 File Sharing Jaiku A month older than Twitter, bought by Google, shelved 2006–2012 Social Networks Kazaa The post-Napster free-for-all 2001–2012 File Sharing Loopt Sam Altman's first company: see where your friends are, years before phones could 2006–2012 Mobile Apps Google Health Google tried to be the place you kept your medical records, found that almost nobody wanted one, and closed it in 2012 2008–2012 Online Services Google Buzz The launch that put Google under 20 years of privacy audits 2010–2011 Social Networks Star Wars Galaxies The Star Wars MMO its players never forgave for the New Game Enhancements 2003–2011 Games Google Sidewiki A comment box Google bolted onto every website in the world, whether the owner wanted it or not 2009–2011 Online Services Google Gears Made the web work offline, then handed the idea to HTML5 2007–2011 Developer Tools Google Desktop Google search for your own hard drive, plus a sidebar of gadgets, retired when the cloud made it pointless 2004–2011 Desktop Software Aardvark Ask a question over instant messenger and a friend of a friend who actually knew the answer wrote back within minutes, until Google bought it and put it on the spring-cleaning list 2009–2011 Search Engines & Directories Revver The first video site that paid the people who made the videos, sold to a company that stopped paying them 2005–2011 Video & Streaming HP TouchPad Killed 49 days after launch 2011–2011 Phones & Tablets Palm Pre The comeback phone that invented the card interface and could not save Palm 2009–2011 Phones & Tablets T-Mobile Sidekick The swivel-screen phone whose life lived on Danger's servers, and died with them 2002–2011 Phones & Tablets Flock The social web browser: Firefox, then Chromium, with Facebook and Twitter in the sidebar, bought by Zynga and closed in 2011 2005–2011 Web Browsers Floppy disk Forty years of the disk everyone saved to, from the IBM 8-inch to the last 3.5-inch Sony boxes in 2011 1971–2011 Storage & Media Formats Windows Live Spaces 30 million blogs, and Microsoft expected 1% to move 2004–2011 Blogging & Web Publishing Microsoft Kin Dead in 48 days 2010–2011 Phones & Tablets Bloglines The RSS reader that taught the web to subscribe, bought by Ask Jeeves in 2005 and switched off in 2010 after Google Reader took its readers 2003–2010 Web Technologies & Tools LimeWire Half your MP3s, half your malware 2000–2010 File Sharing Vox Closed at 3:20 in the afternoon, and its name sold on 2006–2010 Blogging & Web Publishing N-Gage Nokia's taco phone: a Symbian handset that was also a games console, sold sideways, then a games service that closed in 2010 2003–2010 Consoles & Handhelds Vox Six Apart's friendly blog for people who did not want to blog in public, closed four years later and its address sold to a media company 2006–2010 Blogging & Web Publishing Microsoft Works The cheap office suite that came with the PC, from a 1986 Macintosh program to Works 9, replaced by Office Starter 1986–2010 Desktop Software Maemo Nokia's Linux for internet tablets and the N900, folded into MeeGo 2005–2010 Operating Systems Joost The Skype founders' peer-to-peer television, the most hyped video start-up of 2007, sold for parts in 2009 2007–2009 Video & Streaming Encarta The encyclopedia on a CD, killed by a website 1993–2009 Reference & Learning GeoCities Your neighborhood on the early web 1994–2009 Blogging & Web Publishing Yahoo! 360° Left in beta for four years, then quietly ended 2005–2009 Blogging & Web Publishing CompuServe The internet before the internet 1979–2009 Online Services Microsoft Money Microsoft's personal finance program, eighteen years against Quicken, ended when the banks went online 1991–2009 Desktop Software Palm OS The organiser in your pocket that taught phones to be computers 1996–2009 Operating Systems Dodgeball Text your location to a short code and find your friends nearby: the check-in before Foursquare, bought by Google in 2005 and abandoned in 2009 2003–2009 Social Networks Google Lively Google's cartoon chat rooms with avatars, launched in July 2008 and switched off on New Year's Eve the same year 2008–2008 Online Services Pownce Eighteen months, and invitations sold on eBay 2007–2008 Social Networks Morpheus Cut off its own network overnight, and kept going anyway 2001–2008 File Sharing HD DVD Toshiba's high-definition disc, first to market and dead within two years 2006–2008 Storage & Media Formats Netscape Navigator The browser that opened the web 1994–2008 Web Browsers AOL Explorer AOL's own tabbed browser on top of Internet Explorer, released in 2005, folded into OpenRide and AOL Desktop within two years 2005–2007 Web Browsers Oink's Pink Palace Raided by Interpol, and its founder walked free 2004–2007 File Sharing Microsoft Plus! The boxed add-on pack that gave Windows its themes, Space Cadet Pinball and the first Internet Explorer, sold from 1995 to 2004 1995–2007 Desktop Software Microsoft FrontPage The web editor that built a generation of home pages, bought from Vermeer in 1996 and retired in 2006 1995–2006 Desktop Software Google Answers Pay a researcher $2 to $200 for an answer: Google's first paid product, closed in 2006 as Yahoo Answers took off 2002–2006 Reference & Learning eDonkey2000 Two founders who went on to build OkCupid and Stellar 2000–2006 File Sharing BearShare Paid the RIAA $30 million, then became someone else 2000–2006 File Sharing Gizmondo The handheld with GPS, a camera and adverts, sold by a company run by Swedish gangsters, gone in a year 2005–2006 Consoles & Handhelds Grokster The case that made building the tool a crime 2001–2005 File Sharing Iomega Zip drive 100 megabytes on a fat floppy, and the Click of Death 1995–2003 Storage & Media Formats WonderSwan Gunpei Yokoi's last handheld, Bandai's Japan-only Game Boy rival with Final Fantasy remakes and a 30-hour battery 1999–2003 Consoles & Handhelds Prodigy The IBM and Sears online service with the blue screens and the ads at the bottom, two million subscribers before the web, sold and sold again 1988–2001 Online Services Microsoft Comic Chat The IRC client that drew your conversation as a comic strip, shipped with Internet Explorer 3 in 1996 and open-sourced thirty years later 1996–2001 Messengers Webvan Right idea, twenty years early, at a billion dollars a mistake 1999–2001 E-commerce & Retail Napster Every song in the world, free, right now 1999–2001 File Sharing Kozmo.com A video in an hour, free, by bicycle 1998–2001 E-commerce & Retail Sega Dreamcast The console that killed its own company 1998–2001 Consoles & Handhelds eToys.com Worth more than Toys R Us, for about a year 1997–2001 E-commerce & Retail Infoseek One of the first big web search engines, Netscape's default for a year, bought by Disney and buried inside Go.com 1995–2001 Search Engines & Directories Sega Saturn Sega's 32-bit console, launched early by surprise, undercut by PlayStation and abandoned in America after three years 1994–2000 Consoles & Handhelds Pets.com The sock puppet outlived the company 1998–2000 E-commerce & Retail Satellaview Nintendo's satellite modem for the Super Famicom, live-broadcast Zelda and F-Zero from a Tokyo radio station, off air in 2000 1995–2000 Game Platforms & Services Boo.com $135 million in eighteen months, on a site nobody could load 1999–2000 E-commerce & Retail GEnie General Electric's text-only online service, home of the RoundTables and the first big multiplayer games, sold twice and switched off for the year 2000 1985–1999 Online Services Sega Channel Genesis games over cable TV, $15 a month, in 1994 1994–1998 Game Platforms & Services Apple Newton The handheld that was right, ten years early 1993–1998 Phones & Tablets NCSA Mosaic Put the pictures in the page, and the web took off 1993–1997 Web Browsers Game Gear Sega's colour handheld, better than the Game Boy on paper and out of batteries in three hours 1990–1997 Consoles & Handhelds Virtual Boy Nintendo's red 3D headset, on sale for about a year 1995–1996 Consoles & Handhelds Atari Jaguar "Do the math": Atari's 64-bit console, the last one it ever made, dead within three years 1993–1996 Consoles & Handhelds Sega CD The CD-ROM drive that bolted onto the Genesis, full-motion video, Night Trap and 2.24 million sold 1991–1996 Consoles & Handhelds Microsoft Bob A cartoon house instead of a desktop, sold for one year in 1995 1995–1996 Desktop Software 3DO Interactive Multiplayer Trip Hawkins' $699 licensed console, built by Panasonic and Goldstar, out of the hardware business within three years 1993–1996 Consoles & Handhelds Atari Lynx The first colour handheld, designed at Epyx and sold by Atari, beaten by a monochrome Game Boy 1989–1995 Consoles & Handhelds