If you’re going to introduce a new product, why not make it in the shape of a cat? That was the idea behind the CueCat, a barcode scanning device given away in the year 2000. The idea was that people could scan CueCat barcodes from newspapers, magazines, and packages, and get sent to a specific website.
Of course that meant you had to read a newspaper, magazine, or package while sitting in front of your computer since the CueCat plugged into a PC. The CueCat has now been dubbed one of “The 25 Worst Tech Products of All Time” by PC World magazine. Then again, why would anyone expect a cat be help people work for efficiently when cats spend most of their time doing nothing productive anyway?