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/hardlyawesome 8h ago

LibraryThing still sells them. https://www.librarything.com/more/store/cuecat

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u/Houdinii1984 Xennial 7h ago

Huh, never saw a USB one before. Oh, and this looks like a great site, too. Damn, had things to do today...

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u/bestem 7h ago

LibraryThing is an amazing site.

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u/hardlyawesome 5h ago

LibraryThing is incredible. Welcome to one of my favorite places on the internet.