The boring Internet and how “useless sites” can save you from it

The Internet has changed the world. It changed politics, education, shopping and journalism, and it completely redefined how people spent their time.

The Internet is vast and mysterious, full of many unique sites. While most websites have a clear purpose, such as promoting a business, selling products, educating or inspiring, sometimes there are oddities that lack purpose. Of the 1.1 billion websites that make up the World Wide Web, only 18% are currently active. Among them are the real diamonds – websites that are active and carefully designed, but are also hilariously useless.

This article is dedicated to such sites. From virtual game shows where your participation doesn't matter, to random text generators that provide endless streams of gibberish and offer something special in their uselessness. Each user can give them their own special meaning. Or at least have fun.

❯ How the Internet Became Dull

It’s as if the Internet has become old and boring. The Internet used to be a lot weirder and funnier. There were a lot of independent creators making cool stuff for fun.

Today the Internet seems empty, although it is filled with more content than ever. A handful of giant social networks have taken over the open space of the Internet, centralizing and standardizing the user experience through their own opaque and variable content curation systems. When these platforms decline, as Twitter did, there is no other comparable platform in the ecosystem that can replace them. Several alternative sites, including Bluesky and Discord, have tried to absorb disgruntled Twitter users. But like sprouts blocked by the forest canopy, online spaces that offer fresh experiences lack room to grow.

Social media has become more hierarchical than before. There's a disconnect that wasn't there before between audiences and creators. The platforms that are most popular with young users today—YouTube, TikTok, and Twitch—function as broadcast stations, where a single creator posts videos to their millions of followers; what followers say to each other doesn't matter. Social media used to be more of a place for conversation and reciprocity. Now talking is not strictly necessary, only viewing and listening.

Instagram (belongs to extremist Meta) ushered in the era of self-commercialization on the Internet—it was a platform for selfies—but TikTok and Twitch accelerated this era. Selfies are no longer enough; video platforms show off your body, your speech and mannerisms, and the room you're in in real time. Everyone is forced to play the role of influencer. The barrier to entry is higher and the pressure to conform is stronger. It is not surprising that in this environment, fewer and fewer people are taking the risk of publishing, and more and more are settling into the role of passive consumers.

When was the last time you had fun online without the burden of anonymous trolling, automated recommendations, or uncontrolled monetization schemes? This was likely before social media became the dominant backbone of the Internet. What comes to mind are game sites built with Flash, the late interactive animation software that made up a large part of the internet in the 2000s. These were sites that anyone could stumble across without being distracted by subscriber counts or sponsored content.

In the noughties, easy-to-use web design software such as

Adobe Flash

coupled with the accessibility of the Internet, catalyzed a golden era of online experimentation. They were distributed not by algorithmic ranking, but by word of mouth. They had little in common except a grotesque sense of discovery and childish play. After all, the Network itself was just a child.

Then, in a few short years, two simultaneous tectonic shifts changed the face of the Internet. First, Apple killed Flash; Steve Jobs kicked it out of the iPhone for being buggy, slow, and a proprietary security risk that made the once ubiquitous software a burden to work with. Suddenly creating anything online wasn't so easy, and a lot of cool sites ended up going down. Flash has been replaced by tools such as HTML5but by then it was too late. Developers increasingly created for the iPhone, prioritizing apps over browsers.

Another transformation is that websites themselves have become largely obsolete and replaced by platforms. First came MySpace, Facebook (owned by the extremist Meta), Twitter, Tumblr and Reddit; then came a wave of images and videos targeting Nelzyagram, Snapchat and TikTok. To their credit, these tech giants have truly democratized the publishing process. You didn't have to be a hacker to add a photo to your feed. Powerful editing tools on mobile devices make publishing online easier than ever.

But people used to create their own unique worlds on the Internet; now they mostly yell at each other while sitting in adjacent rooms.

❯ A million checkboxes

Speaking about unique worlds, one cannot fail to mention a recent project called

One Million Checkboxes

which was created in a fit of inspiration by 32-year-old game developer from Brooklyn Nolen Royalty.

It's just rows of a million empty squares arranged seductively on a pale gray background, a sort of endless field for play. Sapper. A page visitor can check/uncheck any boxes. And every time a box is checked/unchecked, it is instantly displayed on the screens of all other users, as a kind of shared shopping list, available to anyone.

One Million Checkboxes started a year ago after a brainstorming session between Nolen Royalty and his friend Neil Agarwal (we'll come back to him later). Royalty spent two days coding the website and hoped a few hundred people would try it. Instead, One Million Checkboxes spread to sites such as X, Mastodon, and the technology forum Hacker News. Royalty says he barely slept for days as roughly half a million players (and one online attack) continually crashed his website. Users have checked or unchecked the boxes approximately 200 million times. Royalty was feverishly spinning up more servers and updating the code to support it. Today it costs him about $60-70 a day. But he says it's the most fun he's ever had.

Within a week of the site's launch, over 700,000 slots had been filled, making One Million Checkboxes a surprise hit and generating strong reactions, with users describing the project as “strangely exciting” And “torture for people with OCD” In the Washington Post newsletter, he called “the most pointless site on the planet” – which was actually a compliment.

While providing users with a blank slate, One Million Checkboxes also moved quickly through the stages of Internet maturity, serving as something of a microcosm of the joys and horrors of digital life. First there was an exploration period during which users worked together to check as many boxes as possible. Then creativity came in as some began filling in the boxes to display different designs with check marks. In some cases, these were crude drawings of genitals. And some leave it to each other hidden messages.

This site does the same thing as the genre of “incremental” or “clicker” games (such as Cookie Clicker or Universal Paperclips), where you simply click to increase/decrease the number on the counter. A simple goal and a simple way to achieve it. The counter tracks how many boxes all players have collectively marked. Some people enjoy chaos and uncheck boxes as quickly as others check them to watch the counter roll back. It's as satisfying as popping bubble wrap.

The game (if it is a game at all) proves that technology perfectly satisfies our need for mindless joy. And it can only be temporary in its current form. There should be more sites like this on the Internet! The Internet should be fun! Isn't that the point? An endless canvas, forever searching for an artist.

❯ Artifacts

Although there is probably no return to the fun and free Internet that was. Apps and platforms are fragmented but still dominant and continue to attract a new generation of creators with the promise of monetization. But there are still enthusiasts who propose, if not a return to the old ways, then at least an alternative way to make the Internet fun.

Programmer Neil Agarwal, like Nolen Royalty, believes that there should be more people on the Internet creating interesting and fun things. And he did Internet Artifactswhich takes several pre-platform Internet benchmarks and places them on literal digital pedestals. Homestar Runner is included in the list, as well as Zomboa joke web page that was once called “the least useful website”. Agarwal has lovingly recreated his links, right down to a faithfully emulated Internet Explorer browser window for posts on the original MySpace and Wikipedia pages, as well as a Napster simulation that allows you to download real MP3s. The exhibit unfolds chronologically, starting with a 1977 ARPANET map and making dozens of stops at web developments over the next three decades.

Internet Artifacts goes back to 2007. The latest entry is a video of Steve Jobs announcing the iPhone at the MacWorld conference. It's a fitting end to a certain era of the internet that was open, weird and absurd.

But Internet Artifacts is just one of Neil's cool developments. He collected all his developments in neal.funan alternate dimension where the Net never stopped being weird.
The most surprising thing about Agarwal's development is that there is nothing like neal.fun. The closest analogue to this is perhaps the irreplaceable Museum of Vanishing Sounds Brandon Chilcutt, who focuses on auditory artifacts both online and offline: the whirring click of a rotary telephone, the plaintive beeping of a Tamagotchi, etc. It makes sense that somewhere on the Internet there would be something that says, “This was important.” for many people. It existed. It made a difference.”

Agarwal and Royalty aren't the only people doing funny things online. There are actually many such cases all over the world, when kindred spirits share notes and ideas, and then create something cool. You may find complementary energy in the works

And

And

(along with their endless imitators) provide a daily dose of fun for the major platforms. And the Useless Internet curates a selection of nonsense.

But it is the diversity of Agarwal's work and his dedication to the old Internet as a means of artistic achievement that is impressive. For example, as the Internet evolves, technology companies continually make announcements regarding small apps and push notifications. Neil didn't do any of these things.

Spend all Bill Gates' money here

As for what comes next, Agarwal keeps a list of potential experiments. There are currently about 1,300 works on the list. He's still adding one or two every day. “At this point, even if I don’t come up with any more ideas, I have enough things to work on for the rest of my life,” Neil says.

❯ Useless web

In the mid and late 2000s, single-user sites were everywhere. There were sites where you could find out: how many days are left until the New Year, how many people are in space at the moment, or get a page that is sometimes red and sometimes blue. It was fun. Sites like these make the Internet richer, and creating them is a great way to learn interesting things.

Website The Useless Web can be defined as the mother of all “useless” websites. It's essentially a curated directory of the most useless sites on the Internet. It's just one giant CTA button that will randomly take you to pages where you can have fun killing time.

These sites will not help you find an answer, solution, or meaningful information about any topic. Most of them consist of a single page with little or no interactive components: a page where you see a guy falling; a ninja who stands still and does nothing; endless dog.

What's the point of visiting these websites if they have no purpose? Although most of these web designs are weird and don't help you achieve anything, they were created for a reason. They are funny and serve as a form of entertainment. And it is precisely the fact that they do not have a specific purpose that allows users to endow them with their own special subjective meaning.

The sites can range from the weird to the downright absurd, from sites dedicated to watching paint dry to sites that won't let you leave until you answer a series of questions. These meaningless web pages can be interesting in their own right. There are many examples, from Cat Bounce (site where cats jump up and down) to the floating QR code in Floating QR code.

These sites may be considered a waste of time. However, with a little creativity, they can be really useful. For example, for rest and relaxation during a break at work or study. They are also good resources for generating creative ideas or new ways of looking at something.

Fun here

Exploring the weird and crazy world of useless websites can be a fun way to pass the time, but there are also some potential downsides to consider. They pose a security risk because they may not always have strong data protection protocols installed, which could lead to identity theft or other malicious activity. Additionally, some people may find themselves spending hours of their day visiting these sites without even realizing it.\

At first glance, these websites often seem like little more than silly distractions with no real purpose. However, if you take a closer look, you see something much more: they provide an outlet for creative expression and exploration. Gimmicky websites have the ability to capture the imagination in ways that other online content cannot—opening up conversations between like-minded people on topics ranging from the absurd to the sublime.

At its core, this type of research encourages users to think outside the box and be creative—and that's worthy of respect! The Internet was more interesting when people created websites just for the heck of it. And people should start doing it again.