disney.com is a website operated by Disney Digital Network, a division of

The Walt Disney Company The Walt Disney Company, commonly known as Disney (), is an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios complex in Burbank, California. Disney was originally founded on October ...

, that promotes various Disney properties such as films, television shows, and theme park resorts, and offers entertainment content intended for children and families. For years, disney.com has been a very popular website: a survey back in April 1998 revealed that Disney.com had over 10% more unique visitors than

ABCNews.com ABC News is the news division of the American broadcast network ABC. Its flagship program is the daily evening newscast '' ABC World News Tonight with David Muir''; other programs include morning news-talk show ''Good Morning America'', ''Nig ...

, and the combined Disney/Infoseek websites were second in web traffic to leader ''Yahoo!'' that month. The current portal is Disney's second effort at a web portal, the first being ended with the loss of go.com. On September 21, 2011, the content from disney.com was launched as a free channel available through the Roku streaming player. It is the first player so far to allow viewing through a television.

History

''disney.com'' was first registered on March 21, 1990. On February 12, 1996, a ten-day preview of disney.com is launched through

America Online AOL (stylized as Aol., formerly a company known as AOL Inc. and originally known as America Online) is an American web portal and online service provider based in New York City. It is a brand marketed by the current incarnation of Yahoo! Inc. ...

and

Netscape Netscape Communications Corporation (originally Mosaic Communications Corporation) was an American independent computer services company with headquarters in Mountain View, California and then Dulles, Virginia. Its Netscape web browser was onc ...

. In January 2007 Disney CEO

Bob Iger Robert Allen Iger (; born February 10, 1951) is an American businessman who is the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of The Walt Disney Company. He previously served as the President of ABC Television between 1994 and 1995 and the President and Ch ...

announced a major overhaul of Disney.com at the

Consumer Electronics Show CES (; formerly an initialism for Consumer Electronics Show) is an annual trade show organized by the Consumer Technology Association (CTA). Held in January at the Las Vegas Convention Center in Winchester, Nevada, United States, the event typi ...

. The announced changes put a heavy emphasis on an integrated video player. Further changes were also announced to sort content based on visitor demographics and the addition of social networking features that would be monitored for appropriate content. The newly redesigned website was unveiled in February 2007. It included a new service called Disney Xtreme Digital (Disney XD for short, Not to be confused with the channel of the same name.), which allowed members to communicate and interact with each other in chat rooms. Users were limited to select phrases and the ability to create their own Disney XD page, which were called channels. Disney XD allowed users to watch full-length episodes from

Disney Channel Disney Channel, sometimes known as simply Disney, is an American pay television channel that serves as the flagship property of Disney Branded Television, a unit of the Disney General Entertainment Content division of The Walt Disney Compan ...

and other videos, play online quizzes and games, stream

Radio Disney Radio Disney was an American radio network operated by the Disney Radio Networks unit of Disney Branded Television within the Disney General Entertainment Content, headquartered in Burbank, California. The network broadcast music programming ...

and preview new movies and music albums. It included a further feature called Shop DXD. Shop DXD used an internal currency called D-Points that users could earn from playing games and activities on the website. D-Points could be used to purchase items such as backgrounds and phrases for a user's channel or chat rooms. The service was only available in the United States and the United Kingdom. The Disney XD initiative was later de-emphasized and split into My Pages for pages and Homeroom for TV episodes. The Disney XD name was later recycled by the

Disney-ABC Television Group This is a list of assets currently or formerly owned by the Walt Disney Company, unless otherwise indicated. Corporate Walt Disney Studios Live-action production Animated production Disney Studio Services Disney Theatrica ...

, another division of

to launch Disney XD, an unrelated television network launched on February 13, 2009, as the successor to

Toon Disney Toon Disney was an American multinational pay television channel owned by Disney Channels Worldwide, a subsidiary of Disney-ABC Television Group. The channel's target audience was children ages 2–11, and children ages 6–13 during the Jetix ...

. They later added ''Disney Create'' to the website, an art gallery where users can draw and publish their art. ''Disney Create'' closed on May 1, 2014.

References

Sources

External links

* {{Disney Media and Entertainment Distribution Disney Interactive Browser-based game websites