LONDON -- One of the world's first and most unlikely Internet stars is being retired after eight years online, British scientists said on Tuesday.
An inexpensive coffee pot sitting in the corner of Cambridge University's computer laboratory gained cult status as what is believed to be the first live image shown on the fledgling World Wide Web in 1993.
Now the site, which shows nothing more than the pot slowly filling up, will be shut down and consigned to the history books as the computer lab moves to new premises.
"Only five years ago it was a novelty, now it is of historical interest. Only on the Web could something make that transition so quickly," said Quentin Stafford-Fraser, one of the scientists behind the Trojan Room coffee pot project.
Stafford-Fraser said he originally hooked up a camera because he was sick of traipsing down several flights of stairs for coffee only to find the pot was often empty.
"The image was only updated about three times a minute, but that was fine because the pot filled rather slowly, and it was only greyscale, which was also fine because so was the coffee," Stafford-Fraser said.
Scientist Dan Gordon acknowledged the site was only marginally more exciting than watching paint dry but said it had attracted 2.4 million visitors since 1993.
"Once, some American tourists called into the tourist information center here and asked where (the coffee pot) was so they could visit it," Gordon said.
"They took lots of photos. It's not really very impressive though, it's just a coffee pot."
Gordon also revealed a behind-the-scenes secret: The coffee pot currently starring on the site is not the original. That broke down some time ago and has since been replaced by a series of lookalikes.
