bob

Microsoft Bob was a product released by Microsoft in March 1995 as an adventure game-like interface for performing tasks on one's computer. Despite its ambitious nature, Bob failed to penetrate the market and is widely considered a major failure for Microsoft. Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer has admitted as much, naming Bob as one project "we [had] undertaken ... where we decided that we have not succeeded and let's stop." [1]

Origins

Microsoft Bob was designed to be a user friendly interface for Microsoft Windows version 3.1, replacing the Program Manager. The project was at one point managed by Melinda French, Bill Gates' girlfriend at the time.[2] The two later married. At the time she left Microsoft she was Product Unit Manager for a group which included Bob and three other Microsoft titles. Microsoft originally had the domain name bob.com for the product but traded it to Bob Kerstein for the windows2000.com domain.[3]

Features

Bob includes various office suite programs such as a calendar, a finance application, and a word processor. The user interface was designed to be helpful to novice computer users, but many saw its methods of assistance as too cute and involved. Each action, such as creating a new text document, featured the step-by-step tutorials no matter how many times the user had been through the process. Users were assisted by cartoon characters whose appearance was usually vaguely related to the task.

Despite its poor market showing and reputation, Bob's yellow smiley face logo became widely associated with the product.

The cartoon helper agents of Bob (version 1.0)

Bob featured a diverse selection of "guides". Each guide possessed its own unique "personality" and had its own array of animations. Although they were meant to be cute, many people found the guides to be simply annoying.

• Rover, the yellow dog
• Blythe, a firefly from New York City
• Chaos, a fluffy cat from France
• Digger, an Irish earthworm
• Hopper, a blue stuffed bunny rabbit
• Java, a coffee-drinking dragon from Guatemala
• Ruby, a parrot
• Shelly, a turtle that wears a backpack and carries a walking stick
• Scuzz, a guitar-playing rat
• Speaker, a black computer speaker
• Will, a cartoon of William Shakespeare
• The Dot, a red ball

Other cartoon helper agents

Some designs of the Bob cartoons are still used in other Microsoft products:

• Bob's face was used in MSN Messenger as a "Nerd Smiley"
• Will and The Dot are now Office Assistants (Will was only in Office 97).
• The yellow dog "Rover" can be found in the search function of Windows XP
• Rover's animations (like typing on a computer) inspired the Office Assistant "Rex"
• Rover appears in the Microsoft program Greetings Workshop

See also

• Abandonware

External links

• Microsoft Bob Review
• Microsoft Bob version 1.0 for Windows information
• The GUI Gallery: Microsoft Bob' Examining Bob in the context of other graphical user interfaces
• Dan's 20th Century Abandonware - Microsoft Bob Exhibit
• Microsoft BOB Download at winhistory.de (.exe)