Written by James Fohl

I remember quite a few years ago, lots and lots of people who weren't computer savvy and refused to put down a large amount of money for a computer system instead found out about the internet through this wonderful thing known as WebTV.

WebTV was, or rather somewhat is this little black box that connected to your television and used your phoneline to connect to the internet. You could either use the sophisticated remote to navigate through the world wide web, or you could spend an additional sum of money for a wireless keyboard.

The keyboard was well worth the extra money, because if you had just used the remote, then you were forced to use the onscreen keyboard to type in web addresses and emails, which was of course painfully slow. The keyboard, on the other hand, could be used anywhere in your living room because it was wireless, and full size.

The fun thing about WebTV was that it was not an actual computer, so you couldn't screw anything up. It was just a basic web browser with an email program that used special @webtv.com email addresses. There was no need to worry about viruses because, well first off their was no real operating system, and second you really could not download anything.

Of course, WebTV was not exactly great either, and in reality was actually pretty far from being a great product. Because it was just a internet browser, WebTV couldn't be used like a normal computer. No software titles could be installed, and the WebTV web browser could not display many plug-ins that are commonly found throughout the internet (such as Flash animastions). Because of its simplicity, many WebTV users were 'flamed' if they participated in online message boards because of the assumption that all WebTV users were stupid. Still WebTV was very simple to use for non-tech savvy users, and a cheap alternative way of accessing the internet without a regular computer.

I am still sad however that it seems WebTV no longer exists in the form that it was originally released in. The last I had heard of the famous WebTV on television was a few years ago, right after Microsoft purchased the WebTV company, and was selling the units for around fifty dollars.

Today, a visit to www.webtv.com will take you to a Microsoft page that tries to sell you the MSN TV, a $199 gadget, that is pretty much a cheap Windows computer that uses the Intel Celeron processor, and Microsoft's own CE operating system. Not only is the gadget expensive, but the service plan rates are pretty high too.

To me, it is very unfortunate that Microsoft bought out WebTV and turned such a great successful device into one that nobody wants, or has heard of anymore. Although the days of WebTV have come to a past, I believe that I will never forget going over to my relatives and browsing the internet on their television set using WebTV.