According to information we’ve just looked up, there are 1,196,298,727 websites in the World! That number is changing by the second, so by now there are considerably more. Whatever the total, among the billion-plus are some of the oddest, but strangely brilliant, sites ever created. Most of us have our favourite websites. The ones that we regularly visit on a daily, if not hourly basis – or even have permanently open while we work. However, out there, in the wilds of the internet, are a collection of some of the strangest, but often utterly entertaining, websites. Naturally, we can’t list them all, and there’s a good chance that these may not even be around for long, but for now we’ve put together a collection of ten sites you probably didn’t know exist, but really should.
XR Dinosaurs
If you’ve ever fancied viewing a dinosaur in your browser, then XR Dinosaurs is the site for you.
Found at https://www.xrdinosaurs.com/, this interesting website will place a dinosaur of your preference inside the enclosure of a park. You can use the mouse to view the beast from a multitude of angles, and if you own a VR set, or even a device capable of Augmented Reality, then you can experience the dinosaur in a different dimension altogether.
What Did David Bowie Do At Your Age?
We all miss you, David. As well as listening to the ground-breaking music you created, we can now also see what you did when you were the same age as us.
Although this is a somewhat semi-useless site, it’s always amazing to see just what the great Bowie was up to when the same age as you currently are. There are links to his music, via YouTube, as well as some rather interesting information that any Bowie fan will certainly be inspired by.
You can find the site at http://supbowie.com/.
Quick, Draw!
Any good at drawing? Then this site will test your mouse-drawing skills like none other.
Quick, Draw is an AI experiment that will help the code learn what an object is by comparing how users draw it on the screen. You’re given twenty seconds to draw a random object on the screen, while the AI is busy in the background trying to work out what it is that you’ve drawn.
It’s a fun, and intriguing site, and you can start helping the clever AI coders at https://quickdraw.withgoogle.com/.
Map Crunch
At the risk of stating the obvious, the world is a pretty big place. But thanks to the likes of Google Earth it’s now a little bit smaller.
There are a number of sites of this kind, where you can click a button and be placed at a random spot on the planet that’s been mapped by Google Street View. However, Map Crunch has the amazing habit of being able to place you in some really, really obscure locations around the globe.
It’s quite good fun, and often quite eye-opening where you end up. Give it a try: https://www.mapcrunch.com/.
Power Pointer
We love this site, mostly because it’s so bizarre but also remarkably clever.
Power Pointer uses some impressive code to calculate the exact location of your mouse on the screen, then load up a random picture of people pointing at that location.
While it’s not especially useful, it does tend to consume a portion of your day as you load up as many random mouse pointer locations as possible, simply to view the images that will appear. Great fun. https://pointerpointer.com/.
Flight Radar 24
Is there anything more satisfying that watching where all those planes you see in the sky have come from, and where they’re going? No? Must just be us, then.
Flight Radar 24 is a website, as well as iOS and Android app, that allows you see the flight paths and plans of thousands of aircraft around the world. Look out of your window and see a tiny dot of a plane in the sky, then quickly look it up on Flight Radar 24 and you’ll be able to tell the start airport and destination of the plane as it flies over your house.
There’s an odd satisfaction upon seeing a plane over your back garden and discovbering that it flew out of Los Angeles and is currently on it’s way to somewhere in Europe. https://www.flightradar24.com/.
Radiooooo
This, we think, is an immensely interesting site. Tune into global radio stations, from as far back as 1910 – even listen to the radio onboard the Titanic.
Radiooooo is a well-constructed site that’s easy to use, and enables you to choose the decade and country via a large map. Just click the country, the decade and start listening to what was being played on the wireless. There’s also a Premium club, with even more options available, so do check it out if you can. https://radiooooo.com/.
Live Map of the London Underground Trains
There’s a certain kind of geek in all of us, who gets a little excited at the thought of being able to see what flight is over our heads or, as in this case, see a live map of all the London underground trains.
It’s a live map, much in the same vein as Flight Radar 24. Each moving blob overlayed on a map of the London Underground represents a train in motion. Zoom in and out, or click on any of the moving trains to find it’s destination, line, and ETA to the next station. We love it, in a really odd, geeky kind of way. https://traintimes.org.uk/map/tube/schematic/.
The World’s Dumbest Game
Where would a list like this be without including something utterly bewildering, and completely useless?
The World’s Dumbest Game leaves little to the imagination. It’s simplicity itself. All you need to do is load the site up, and using your mouse, click and hold the button in the middle of the screen. That’s it. There’s a timer to show how long you’ve managed to hold the button down for, and if you release the mouse button, then time is up and a high score table is displayed.
There’s not much more we can add to that, really. How long did you last? https://www.worldsdumbestgame.com/.
