PooWords is similar to the traditional word game, Boy/Girl, in which a letter is chosen at random, and then the players have to choose a boy and girl's name which start with the letter.  This game then grew to include the names of places and other trivia and in 1988, Milton Bradley released a board game called Scattergories, which including 192 categories (if I recall correctly).  The game included category sheets which had 12 categories per round, and 16 rounds in total.  This was later expanded upon by way of expansion packs.

PooWords resembles Scattergories in that it also follows a set number of categories per round, however, thanks to the use of computers, we can randomly generate the categories that appear in each round.  PooWords also splits the list of categories into 3 lists.  Categories which are fun and/or easy, categories which may be a little more difficult, and categories which are next to impossible.  The categories will also differ to Scattergories, as we haven't used them as a source.  PooWords also allows people to submit their own categories, which may be included in future games.

PooWords was written in May, 2004 after playing a manual game on IRC with a number of set categories.