Cool websites worth an actual visit
Most "cool websites" lists are the same eight tools you already use, plus a productivity app. This is not that. These are things people made because the web let them — instruments, toys, illusions, small pieces of software art that do not want your email address.
They all run in a browser, they are all free, and they all still work.
- 1
Patatappatatap.com
Press any key and get a sound and a shape. The single best thirty seconds on this list, and it works on a phone.
Open it here → - 2
Type Drummertypedrummer.com
Type, and what you type becomes a drum pattern. Your name is a beat.
Open it here → - 3
Jackson Pollockjacksonpollock.org
Drip, fling and pour paint like Pollock. The physics are the whole point.
Open it here → - 4
The Quiet Placethequietplaceproject.xyz
Sixty seconds of nothing, enforced. Move the mouse and it starts over.
Open it here → - 5
A Soft Murmurasoftmurmur.com
A rain-and-thunder mixer you can tune. The one site here you might genuinely keep open.
Open it here → - 6
Nicky Casencase.me
Explorable explanations — essays you play rather than read. Start with the one about segregation.
Open it here → - 7
Electric Boogie Woogieelectricboogiewoogie.com
A Mondrian you can rearrange, which turns out to teach you something about why the originals are balanced.
Open it here → - 8
If you want more of this and less of everything else, the Art filter on the button draws only from this end of the catalogue.
Questions
What makes a website cool rather than just useful?
Roughly: it was made for its own sake. The sites here are instruments, toys and art pieces built by individuals, not products built for a market. None of them is trying to convert you into anything.
Every site above was loaded in a real browser and verified working before this was published. See the full catalogue.