End of the Mac Web as We Know It

- 2000.03.21

It's been a very slow month for rumors, but we finally have a new one.

3/31/2K: No longer beleaguered, Apple Computer has finally accomplished it's ultimate goal of controlling the Mac web. They have forced sites to pull articles and photographs, hijacked domains, and even shut down Mac Cards, a noncommercial ecard site.

Through iReview, one of their iTools, they are feeding traffic only to a select group of lapdog sites (no offense intended to Small Dog Electronics).

But that was just the beginning. Effective April 1, 2000, the anniversary of their incorporation, Apple will be celebrating their anniversary in style - by shutting down the vast majority of Mac sites on the internet. Any site with the word "apple" or "mac" in its name has been contacted by Apple's ever vigilant legal department and told to "get the Mac out."

Expect to see a huge change come over the Mac-centric web on Saturday, April 1, as many sites make a shift away from their first love, the Macintosh, to a completely new focus. Several webmasters I've been in contact with say it's just been a matter of time before Apple shut them down for not being positive enough about Steve Jobs, Apple Computer, OS X, Microsoft products, Apple's iTools, ClarisWorks 6 - let alone any mention of rumors or rumor sites.

Expect significant changes tomorrow. I'll have to start digging dirt on other companies, since the least hint of a Mac rumor, no matter how tongue-in-cheek, could subject myself and my publisher to a lawsuit from the once-beleaguered Apple. Like the rest of the Mac web, we don't have the money for the lawyers necessary to fight, so we're switching.

Switching to what? I can't say, but be sure to surf the web on Saturday to see what the creative Mac webmasters have come up with to stay in business despite Apple's best attempts to shut them down.

- Anne Onymus

Apple should count the cost before alienating its friends, Charles W. Moore, MacOS Daily, 3/31. "...Apple has been on a binge of alienating friends right and left lately."
Opnion: Isn't it time Apple got some perspective?, MacUser UK, 3/28. "It's difficult to see what Apple has to gain by this heavy-handed approach."
Opinion: Are any Mac sites safe?, Macinstein, 3/28. "It kind of has a 'Big Brother' feel to it and had us thinking about all the effort we put into promoting the Mac."
Opinion: Apple: Big Brother 2000?, NoBeige.com, 3/28. "Apple is acting like the Big Brother that it mocked in 1984."
News: Apple goes postal on Mac Cards, Macworld UK, 3/28. "Apple claimed that visitors would confuse the site with its own."
Web: Where has the Mac Cards website gone?, Mac Cards. "...my enthusiasm to promote the Mac or any Apple product . . . has been completely destroyed."

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