Internet’s oldest continually operating webcam — FogCam is shutting on August 30th, after 25 years. The popular webcam mounted on the top of San Fransisco State University transmits San Fransisco’s famous fog, also known as ‘Karl’ in the local language. It was set up in 1994 by Jeff Schwartz (WebDog) and Dan Wong (Danno) after, initially, beginning with a webcam that took pictures of their pets every minute.
The initial idea was to keep an eye on the furry pets when WebDog and Danno were taking their classes at the University. A year later, they started the famous San Fransisco FogCam which gained huge popularity amongst locals as well as tourists.
In a Twitter post, the duo creators announced that they will pull the plug on the webcam.
After 25 years, Fogcam is shutting down forever at the end of August. Webdog & Danno thank our viewers and San Francisco State University for their support over the years.
The Internet has changed a lot since 1994, but Fogcam will always have a special place in its history.
— Webdog and Danno (@FogCam) August 18, 2019
In an interview with the San Fransisco Chronicle, Schwartz said, “We felt it was time to let it go,” Schwartz said. “The bottom line is that we no longer have a really good view or place to put the camera. The university tolerates us, but they don’t really endorse us and so we have to find secure locations on our own.”
Reminiscing the early days of FogCam, Schwartz said that the idea behind setting up a webcam in San Francisco came from Trojan Room Coffee Pot cam, which was the first-ever live webcam before the internet came into existence.
FogCam also became one of the earlier sites to set up a live chat room in combination with the webcam. Schwartz said he was approached by MTV’s Adam Curry to develop a similar model for his website.
FogCam will be shut down on August 30th, but the website will still be functional “for sake of posterity.”
