He ran to the window, opened it, and put out his head.
“What’s today?” cried Scrooge, calling downward to a boy in Sunday clothes.
We may stop the story here.
For seven years, users have turned to IsItChristmas.com with a simple question. “Is it Christmas?” they ask (for it is in fact the only question they can ask).
“Yes,” replies the website, or “No,” and either way the answer arrives magisterially and with great purpose (for it is in fact the website’s only purpose).
I myself have discharged this duty many times, both on Christmas and not. I have seen the site’s creator, Eric Mill, add small features. I have seen many other single-serving sites pop up, which sometimes dispatch their unitary task with as much nobility and singularness of mind as IsItChristmas.com. I have even seen a report on these sites appear, in the form of a single-serving site: IsThisYourPaperOnSingleServingSites.com.
But, as you may have heard, the web has changed. Sites are so passé. What users want now are apps—or, really, what they really want are services.
(Author’s note: I do not actually believe this. Users still want websites, too.)
And so Mill has teamed up with If This, Then That. And now we have Is It Christmas? …As A Service.