ILoo

Cancelled portable toilet project by Microsoft

The iLoo (short for Internet loo) was a cancelled Microsoft project to develop a Wi Fi Internet enabled portable toilet. The iLoo, which was to debut at British summer festivals, was described as being a portable toilet with wireless broadband Internet, an adjustable plasma screen, a membrane wireless keyboard, a six channel speaker system, and toilet paper embossed with popular web site addresses. The iLoo was also to have an extra screen and keyboard on the outside, and was to be guarded. It was intended as the next in a series of successful initiatives by MSN UK which sought to introduce the internet in unusual locations, including MSN Street, MSN Park Bench and MSN Deckchair. The project was announced by MSN UK on April 30, 2003, and was widely ridiculed before being declared a hoax by Microsoft on May 12. On May 13, another Microsoft press release stated that although the project had not been a hoax, it had been cancelled because it would do little to promote the MSN brand. There has since been speculation as to whether the project was cancelled for fear of being sued by Andrew Cubitt, who had invented the similarly named product "i Loo". The iLoo was described as a public relations "debacle" by Online Journalism Review. Externally, the facility would feature an MSN logo and have a "Hotmail station" with an additional plasma screen and keyboard for waiting consumers.

After reading an article about the iLoo, Andrew Cubitt, inventor of the similarly named i Loo, wrote to The Inquirer stating that iLoo "sounds remarkably similar  it now seems that the clever people at Microsoft have cottoned onto the idea and even call it the i Loo, the same as mine!" Microsoft never formally commented on Cubitt's allegations and instead initially stated the iLoo was an April's fool joke. As a result, Cubitt questioned whether this was "a very calculated ploy to destroy competition in its early stages, or is admitting they don't even know what time of the month it is less embarrassing and ridding them of a potentially expensive situation!" Cubitt went on to state that "as they have now discredited my idea as a joke, I will never be able to produce the idea" and as such was "consulting my law books now on defamatory statements".</blockquote>

The i Loo internet toilet roll browser was featured at the 2003 Daily Mail Ideal Home Show as part of the Future Concepts exhibition in Earls Court, London, where it was nominated for the MFI Bright Sparks 2003 awards. The i Loo, which was sponsored by Epson Printers, received significant press coverage, and was featured on GMTV as well as various radio shows.