The serendipitous web
August 5, 2005 8:34 PM   Subscribe

Ever had one of those days when you want to look at web sites but don't know which ones you want to look at? A perl script on this page will show you a random web site. It's a great time-waster!
posted by clevershark (19 comments total)
 
That was...odd. From a site about art and bras to a ministry blog and then to a PHP builder. It's like eating foods that don't belong together.
posted by UseyurBrain at 9:10 PM on August 5, 2005


For those interested in this sort of thing, there's also a toolbar add-on that may be downloaded at Stumbleupon.com built around this same idea. (Works really well with Firefox.) But you can set it to pick random sites that comform to your specific tastes. Also, you can give sites thumbs up/thumbs down and share favorites with your online pals.
posted by meh at 9:10 PM on August 5, 2005


Wow, this is original. Not.

/cliche sarcasm.
//美育意思
posted by delmoi at 10:02 PM on August 5, 2005


er, I mean 没有意思, obviously.
posted by delmoi at 10:14 PM on August 5, 2005


Wow, the FIRST site it brought me to was Metafilter! I kid you not!



Oh wait, I just hit the back button instead! ;)
posted by parallax7d at 10:21 PM on August 5, 2005


This is so ripe for Goatse and tubgirl its ridiculous.
posted by Rubbstone at 10:56 PM on August 5, 2005


Well I got to see a nice flash art site and a brittish socialist workers' paper. Pretty decent.
posted by mai at 11:04 PM on August 5, 2005


did steve jobs dream this up, high on the fumes of his iPon factory? enjoy uncertainty, indeed.
posted by Hat Maui at 12:24 AM on August 6, 2005


your entry: www.metafilter.com, will be reviewed by our crack staff of monkeys
who will look for mispelling, dead websites or questionable links.

your entry will be added into the database when we have time.


So no change metafilter will be added to the database.
posted by Pendragon at 2:10 AM on August 6, 2005


It was worth it just for this.
posted by dodgygeezer at 2:34 AM on August 6, 2005


I found Touch and Go v. The Buttholes. Cool.
posted by bdave at 2:42 AM on August 6, 2005


Then straight to Starsky & Hutch Fanfic.

Starsky and Hutch strike out for a cross-country vacation to celebrate Hanukkah and Christmas by visiting their families. What danger could there possibly be in that?

I dig.
posted by bdave at 2:56 AM on August 6, 2005


This is so ripe for Goatse and tubgirl its ridiculous.

Nah, this is just a random selection of websites they've preselected - which is why there's so many links to design studios/graphic designers, band pages, music mags and link hubs like memepool (and links obviously found on memepool). Actually, I got a repeat after 10-15 minutes of clicking. I wonder if there is some sort of probability that can be forced out of that fact to estimate how many links they have in their program.

But your comment raises the question of what a random page off of the entire Internet generator would really look like. Probably an infinite succession of foreign text pages; small business pages; garish personal pages filled with animated gifs and ugly wallpaper; porn; advertisement; and confusing detrius.

I could be wrong, one of my favorite links, after all, is the ugly emo teen/amateur photoshop gag/anime art generator. That casts a pretty wide net and it's almost never boring.
posted by dgaicun at 5:29 AM on August 6, 2005


Sorry, the Ugly Emo Teen, Amateur Photoshop Gag, and Anime Art Generator has changed locations since that linked Mefi post.
posted by dgaicun at 5:34 AM on August 6, 2005


Sheesh, you younguns, no sense of history at all. Back when Yahoo! was little more than a web directory, it had a "random link" link, as a button at the top of the page up through early October 1996, then as a link in the bottom nav bar for about a year after that.
posted by DevilsAdvocate at 6:31 AM on August 6, 2005


And what about old school URoulette?
posted by brevity at 9:36 AM on August 6, 2005


Isn't this site better?


As in "more random", more possible results?
posted by uncanny hengeman at 12:24 AM on August 7, 2005


I like this. So far I got mostly design/art/photography sites, not bad either. Like toycamera.com, photos made with, er, toy cameras, some very cool shots there (Paris, LA, Venice, Morocco...).
posted by funambulist at 3:49 AM on August 7, 2005


I have one of those days every day. Thanks clevershark.
posted by dabitch at 8:57 AM on August 7, 2005


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