Yet Clippy remained, getting a minor makeover in Office 2000 before being automatically turned off in 2002. Writing of his time working for the company, James Fallows reported for The Atlantic in 2008 that the excitable little stationery accessory was bemoaned by employees. Microsoft was not insulated from the Clippy criticism.
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But Clippy was the pre-set helper, and his wiggling eyebrows and contorted paper clip frame burrowed into Windows users' psyches. The Genius was an Einstein-esque icon Power Pup was a dog that could help you retrieve information. (For Office 1997 users, that meant manually changing his program folder name from "Actors" to "NoActors.")Īlthough Clippy received the brunt of criticism, he wasn’t the only Office mascot available to distract and annoy.
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Even if keyboard shortcuts and other operating commands were mastered, Clippy materialized from the ether, repeating himself until they could figure out how to shut him up for good. Users opening a blank document were greeted by a jovial paper clip that offered advice on everything from spelling to saving files. (Though he lacked any genitalia, Clippy was labeled male by Microsoft.)įailing to heed their criticism, Microsoft inserted Clippy into the version of Office released in 1996. Focus groups exposed to the character made frequent references to his “leering” eyes, which female product testers found particularly unsettling.
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According to Clippit illustrator Kevan Atteberry, Microsoft had developed over 250 characters for such a purpose: Clippit, which users later re-named “Clippy,” won out, and the company decided to keep him around for the 1996 release of its word processing software.ĭespite Microsoft harnessing the knowledge of social psychologists from Stanford to develop these software assistants, there were early signs Clippy was destined to annoy users. (Even worse, the hated typeface Comic Sans was created for use in Bob, perpetuating a cycle of user cruelty.)Īlthough Microsoft quickly abandoned Bob, it seemed stuck on one of the characters that populated the OS: Clippit, an energetic paper clip that injected itself into tasks to see if it could make the experience easier on users. Released in 1995, the virtual domain never took off, with users and industry observers declaring it so purposely cute that it was nauseating. Going to the “checkbook” on the desk, for example, would open financial software. The company wanted to take it one step further with Bob, an operating system programmed to resemble the rooms of a house.
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Taking navigation out of its sterile DOS command prompts and making it feel more like the welcoming layout of Apple's Macintosh line, Windows helped facilitate the PC boom. In the 1990s, Microsoft had already revolutionized personal computing with its Windows interface. In order for Microsoft to continue to flourish, Clippy would have to die. In no time at all, he would be the subject of scorn and ridicule, an ever-present voyeur into your home computer navigation. But as they grew more proficient, Clippy would redouble his efforts to interrupt, his roving eyes scanning documents in what felt like a gross invasion of privacy.
The first time this happened, users may have been amused. When Microsoft Office software users began writing a letter by typing “Dear,” for example, out would pop Clippy with an unsolicited offer to help. Stationed somewhere in between those gaffes sits Clippy, the unofficial name for the bouncing, sentient paper clip introduced by Microsoft in 1996 in a bid to help people hone their word processing skills. Netflix may now be the country’s biggest single source of entertainment, but it wasn’t long ago they tried to spin off their DVD and streaming services into separate entities, confusing millions of otherwise satisfied consumers. Coca-Cola infamously angered millions of soda drinkers when it tinkered with its recipe to produce New Coke in 1985. When a large company stumbles, it’s major news.
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