What does videotex mean?
Videotex denotes a now largely historical method of delivering computer text and graphics through television, telephone, or cable networks to a user's television or terminal. Unlike ordinary broadcast teletext, which is one-way and associated with television broadcasters, videotex could be interactive and could use a telephone connection to request information. The term covered early online services and hardware such as viewdata terminals, before the World Wide Web made networked information retrieval commonplace. It is associated especially with 1980s and 1990s experiments in Britain and the United States, although the word remains intelligible in discussions of communications history. In contemporary usage, videotex is primarily historical or nostalgic rather than a description of a currently common service. Its lasting interest lies in showing how households once accessed text-based information without web browsers or modern smartphones.
nounVideotex is a system for delivering computer text and sometimes graphics through television, telephone, or cable networks to a television screen or terminal. It is now largely historical, having been used especially during the 1980s and 1990s before web-based services became widespread.
- An electronic system for accessing text and sometimes graphical information through a television, telephone, or cable connection, especially in the pre-web era.
"The library offered local news and travel information through a videotex service."
"Residents could request theatre listings and weather reports through the videotex terminal."
"A history of early information services discusses videotex alongside early public online systems."
The plural is videotexes, but it is uncommon because the word is now mainly used in historical contexts, where the singular or the attributive form is usually preferred.
"Several early videotexes were installed in public libraries."
Before the web, a television could become a computer terminal and pull up information on demand through a telephone line.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Etymology of videotex
The compound combines video, ultimately from Latin videō, “I see,” with text, from Latin textus, “woven,” referring to the content or wording of a written work. The term became established during the early development of electronic information services in the 1980s, when television and telephone technologies were combined to provide remote access to databases and other computer-held material. Its vocabulary relatives include video, teletext, visible, and evident, although only teletext directly shares the compound's text element.
How videotex is actually used
The word is now chiefly historical or nostalgic. It is more natural in discussions of communications technology and pre-web information services than in contemporary descriptions of ordinary internet access.
Easily confused with videotex
Teletext is typically the one-way text and graphics broadcast through a television signal, whereas videotex was a broader term that could include interactive services accessed by telephone or cable.
Viewdata was an interactive information system delivered over telephone lines and is especially associated with British public television, while videotex was the more general category covering several such systems.