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iCarly.com was the website that hosted the weekly webcast hosted by Carly Shay and Sam Puckett. Freddie Benson was its technical producer, administrator and show cameraman. Carly's brother, Spencer, appeared in some episodes as well as their friend, Gibby Gibson and T-Bo, another friend who owned The Groovy Smoothie.
The fictional webshow went on hiatus in 2012 as Carly was moving to Italy in the series finale, iGoodbye. Sam affirmed that the show was not ending, stating that that they were just taking a break. The webshow has since returned in the revival series, though through a different platform. It is currently unknown what has happened to the website following the webshow's relaunch.
The idea for iCarly was hatched when Carly and Sam videotaped a series of talent show auditions for Ms. Francine Briggs with the help of Freddie and posted them to a social networking site called SplashFace. After Freddie recorded a video of Carly and Sam making fun of Ms. Briggs without their knowledge and uploaded the auditions online without editing it out, the video went viral and the girls realized they had a talent for webcasting.
The webcast featured humorous skits and discussions by Carly and Sam. It also featured photos and videos submitted by viewers, along with occasional special guests (invited and uninvited).
iCarly.com Header
The show was usually produced regularly, but on occasion episodes have been aborted due to circumstances ranging from behind-the-scenes technical problems, to Sam and Carly getting into an argument, to power failures. An attempt at breaking the world record for longest continuous webcast failed only a few minutes before the record would have been broken (the server being down for a mere four seconds).
The webcast proved very popular, and by the end of the show's first year on the air, it was boasting a viewership of between 300,000 and 500,000 and beginning to attract the interest of sponsors, as well as competitors such as Nevelocity.com. At one point, the series was nominated for - and won - the international iWeb Awards, which was presented in Japan. The iCarly crew travelled overseas and, after overcoming some behind-the-scenes obstacles, claimed the award.
Early concept of iCarly.com
The latest version of iCarly.com, after Sam & Cat started to air
Beyond the webcast, the iCarly.com website featured additional video content, contests, and a message board, among other features. In iWant My Website Back, Freddie was denied entry to the website, and it was revealed that the password that granted access to iCarly.com is "Sam Loves Ham". In the same episode, it is shown that Spencer paid for the website domain with his credit card.
iCarly.com started featuring a new "iTrivia" section in September 2012, only available on the full site.
The site was completely shut down on April 4, 2018 due to Dan Schneider leaving Nickelodeon, even the Canadian YTV version as it was licensed by Nickelodeon. The site now redirects to Nick.com or the local equivalent.
Fake Sites
During the entire run of iCarly, closeups of the iCarly website on Freddie's PearBooks are shown. When examined closely, it is clear these closeups on the show are different from the iCarly website in real life. Compared to the screenshot above, some edits are shown with a purple header instead of orange, or with the iCarly video player instead of the car.
The underlying reasoning goes unanswered. As seen in some screenshots, the iCarly website stretches out to match the high screen resolution of Freddie's 17-inch PearBook, compared to the black PearBook and desktop. The "Search Our Site" box is relocated, and only in the screenshot of the black PearBook is there the red "Search Our Site" button as well as the "Click For More Info" button. On the desktop screenshot, the buttons say different words than they do in real life, such as an iPics button. In all screenshots, the header buttons are moved upwards. The video is much larger in all screenshots. In all screenshots, the iCarly logo is unanimated without a white outline surrounding it, unlike in the real life screenshot as shown above.
Real World
The iCarly.com website also existed in the real world, and served as the official website of the iCarly TV series, featuring clips from the series, as well as web-exclusive videos, character blogs, and other content (including content referenced in episodes). Numerous episodes of the TV series end with Carly and Sam encouraging viewers to visit the website and submit videos, many of which were featured both on the website and the TV series itself.
Most countries had their own iCarly.com. For example: Canada, iCarly.ca; Spain, iCarly.es; Germany, iCarly.de; Netherlands, iCarly.nl; Sweden, iCarly.se; Japan, iCarly.jp; and so on. Most website URLs mentioned in episodes are fictional, and typing them into a browser usually resulted in redirection to iCarly.com; now, they just redirect to Nick.com.
Canada's YTV version of the iCarly.com website, iCarly.ca
Below are some fictional URLs featured:
- For more, see the list of iCarly.com redirects
- SplashFace.com
- EpicForks.com
- iGibby.com
- iSnarly.com
- Nevelocity.com
- Neverwatchicarly.com
- Beavecoon.org
Due to licensing and language issues, the actual iCarly.com website was generally accessible only within the United States. Foreign users who typed in the URL would redirected to the iCarly or Nickelodeon website of their country; not all content is shared between the sites, however. For instance, going to iCarly.de would only show videos of the German dub without access to the original English version.
Mobile iCarly.com
The iCarly.com website when accessed through a mobile device differs sightly from the full desktop site. The website design appears different than the desktop site and the mobile version does not have the iPlay, iNeed Help, and Send Us Stuff sections.
The mobile website could be accessed internationally via http://origin.www.icarly.com/m, though the link no longer works due to the shutdown of the iCarly.com website.
Notes
- Many videos have characters telling the viewer to concentrate on finding something, such as a banana, or focusing on Spencer's robot to see if it cries. Of course, these are just pranks, since after approximately 10 seconds, the character pops up in a scary way to startle the viewer.
- When iParty with Victorious was upcoming, iCarly.com would reference Victorious several times: for example, in a blog, Carly is at the Gibson house, "Hey, who erased Victorious from my DVR?!". Victorious would be referenced a few times after that as well, but less frequently.
- In the revival, the webshow was revived, but the show no longer has a dedicated website and is now presumably streaming on SplashFace (or YouTube, due to the revival now referencing real-world social media sites such as Instagram).
- Carly/Miranda rarely appeared in the real-life iCarly.com videos.
Trivia
- The site's logo would enlarge, expand, grow and zoom in before shrinking or zooming out several times again and again.
- The iCarly.com logo also had flashing stars and a grow-and-shrink feature accessible via iCarly_Logo.swf.
- Once Sam & Cat started airing, the iCarly website added a button at the top with the Sam & Cat logo that would redirect you to the Sam & Cat website.
- In foreign dubs of the iCarly series, the URL mentioned in dialogue is still "iCarly.com" rather than the local iCarly website's URL, because the setting remains Seattle, USA.
External links
- https://web.archive.org/*/www.icarly.com/ (US iCarly.com (Archive))
- https://web.archive.org/*/origin.www.icarly.com/ (iCarly.com International accessible Link (Archive))
- https://web.archive.org/*/www.icarly.com/m/ (US iCarly.com on a mobile device (Archive))
- https://web.archive.org/*/origin.www.icarly.com/m/ (iCarly.com International accessible Link on a mobile device (Archive))