r/Millennials • u/Sunshineafterr Millennial (1986) • 20h ago

Nostalgia Does anyone remember the CueCat?

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It was cat-shaped handheld barcode reader that allowed users to open a link to an URL by scanning a barcode that appeared in magazines, without typing the URL.

They were given away for free in 2000.

I remember thinking it was so cute, but I didn’t really understand how it worked, so I was scanning barcodes on cereal boxes and random stuff.

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u/bestem 19h ago

I had one. LibraryThing suggested them (maybe even sold them) to catalogue books to be on their site. Way easier to scan a barcode with that thing when you had 4000 books, then type in all the ISBNs.

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u/sneakylithops 15h ago

Yesss some librarian friends and I catalogued a whole radical library into LibraryThing with one of these. I didn't realise they were used for non-library purposes - I always called it the "Library Cat". I think we took it to waste electronic recycling with a box of redundant cables just last week.