Top 10 worst products

by Tom Merritt |

We gave you our list of the 10 dot-com flops, top 10 buzzwords of the past decade, and 10 tech that we miss, but frankly, we had more fun picking our top 10 worst products of the decade. We've seen our fill of disappointing products, but the following are our 10 favorite flops. Miracle of miracles, some of them are even still around today for your purchase. Darn that indomitable spirit of capitalism--you can't stop it!

Click on the links to see the 10:

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1. Microsoft Bob
I want to say that it was a good idea in the beginning. Bob was born out of Microsoft's goal to improve the Program Manager interface for Windows 3.1. But it was a replacement that just didn't catch on. It also suffered the ignominy of spawning the awful Clippy--the helpful paper clip. Maybe Bob wasn't universally bad, but I've never heard anyone say they miss it. On a side note, according to Wikipedia, "Microsoft Bob was a project managed by Melinda French, Bill Gates's girlfriend at the time. The two later married. Bob was the last project she ever worked on for Microsoft".

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2. CueCat
I liked this idea when I first saw it. I also should note that it's still used for some library applications and comes in handy. But the idea of a product that would allow you to virtually "click" a link in printed materials just didn't have the stamina to make it big. Plus, they shaped it like a cat. Hardly anyone put the special codes in their publications and hardly anyone uses CueCat.

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3. DigiScent iSmell
In the heady days of the dot-com boom, heady scents threatened to take over the Internet. Imagine not only being assaulted by horrible MIDI files and pop-up ads but also the wafting aromas of the Web. If you know the Web very well at all, you know this was a frightening prospect. That could explain the reluctance of most people to equip their home computer systems with the iSmell. Plus, they called it the iSmell--a total marketing faux pas.

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4. PocketMail
Number four on our list still has some devotees. PocketMail allowed you to get and send your email anywhere in the world. You just composed your email and held up the device to a phone, and it sent and received your email with space-age technology. Or you could just use Wi-Fi or an Internet cafe. But come on. Holding a device up to the phone for data transmission brings back those wonderful Commodore Vic-20 feelings, doesn't it?

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5. Furby
As we were compiling this list, we found out that Furby has made a comeback. We haven't gotten our hands on a new Furby, so we can't evaluate the new generation. But for all its technology, the old one was just plain weird. It supposedly learned your language and was even banned by some intelligence agencies. Mostly it was just fun for hackers.

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6. Windows Me
Windows Millennium Edition was somewhat inexplicable. It had a few real features beyond Windows 98 and even rolled back a few things. It crashed like crazy and came out along with the much more reliable Windows 2000. If anything good came out of Windows Me, it was that Microsoft realized home users want stable operating systems, too. Live and learn.

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7. Xenote and the similar Sony E-marker
Here's another good idea, potentially, that just didn't find a use. You hear a song on the radio, but that nasty DJ doesn't tell you who it was. No problem. Just point this device at the radio and bookmark the song. Later, you'll, of course, remember to plug the device into the Web and the device will, of course, match the data to a playlist that's stored by the station on the Web. You think maybe it's easier to just put out radios that can display the song name? Wait. Radio? People still listen to radio?

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8. Flexplay
This is an idea whose time seems to keep coming up over and over again: Self-destructive DVDs. Flexplay is still at it in Japan and hoping the idea will catch fire. Not to confuse the issues, Flexplay DVDs don't self-destruct by catching fire. That might have been cool. No, they just turn black and become unusable.

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9. Audrey Web-surfing machine
It was a sad day when 3Com announced the death of Audrey. I guess in 2001, people just weren't ready for a US$500 block of plastic that only surfed the Web. Strange to think that Apple turned this idea on its head by developing a US$500 hunk of plastic called the Mac Mini that has no screen but can in fact do more than surf the Web.

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10. VKB Bluetooth Virtual Keyboard
I still say this thing looks amazingly cool. The idea is that it projects a keyboard in light on any flat surface. Very space age. Unfortunately, when we tested it, we got the following message during setup: "The device does not offer any usable services. Please enable any desired services on that device or choose another one." Not positive and one of the reasons the device got a dreaded 4.9 rating from CNET editors.

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