When the clock ticks and nothing seems to capture your attention, the search for something engaging begins. Luckily, the internet offers a treasure trove of activities, and we’ve compiled the top 10 best websites that can transform a dull stretch into pure enjoyment.

Why These Top 10 Best Picks Keep You Hooked

10 A Little Chemistry Goes A Long Way

Visit Little Alchemy →

To get a feel for this entry, I dove head‑first into the quirky world of Little Alchemy. Starting with the four classic elements—fire, earth, air and water—I began mixing and matching in hopes of conjuring as many novel items as possible.

After eight marathon hours of experimentation, I managed to unlock 113 fresh creations, leaving roughly 400 more to discover. While a rudimentary grasp of chemistry can give you a slight edge, most combos feel delightfully whimsical rather than scientific.

Admittedly, the journey can be maddening; I’m still chasing the elusive cow, even though I’ve already birthed a flying fish, an angel, and a Jedi knight. If you find yourself stuck, a handful of hints are available—some may deem them cheating, but they’re there if you need a nudge.

One final caution: once you complete the original game, the developers have already rolled out Little Alchemy 2, offering an even larger sandbox of possibilities.

Before you embark, pause and ask yourself: just how bored are you right now?

9 Be Patient, They’re Out There

Visit Some Shark Cams →

If your idle mood leans toward “I don’t want to lift a finger,” consider a low‑effort, high‑thrill option: shark‑watching via a live webcam. No spears, no deep‑sea diving, just a screen and a lot of patience.

Most of the time the feed shows murky water, but occasionally a sleek fish or a massive shark glides into view, rewarding your wait. Grab a bowl of snacks, settle in, and let the ocean drama unfold before your eyes.

8 Where In The World Am I?

Visit Geoguessr →

Feel like a globe‑trotting adventurer without leaving your couch? Geoguessr drops you into a random Google Street View location and challenges you to pinpoint where on Earth you’ve landed.

You receive subtle clues—tiny street signs, distant landmarks, even license plates—to guide your deduction. The game offers a free daily round, but for the truly hungry explorer, a subscription unlocks endless new locales.

7 Become A Researcher

Visit Zooniverse →

Just because you’re idle doesn’t mean you can’t contribute to real science. Zooniverse hosts a plethora of citizen‑science projects where volunteers classify wildlife, examine microscopic images, or transcribe historic anti‑slavery manuscripts.

Whether you’re a budding naturalist eager to label monkeys, or a history buff ready to decipher faded copper‑plate handwriting, there’s a project for you. Around 50 active initiatives span topics from climate change to language preservation.

Most tasks require only a few minutes, but the platform welcomes deeper involvement for those who become inspired by the work.

6 To Infinity

Visit Space.com →

If your boredom stretches beyond the planet, look skyward. Space.com aggregates the latest space‑related news, from rover launches to astronaut updates, offering a gateway to the cosmos.

You can follow ongoing missions, explore astronomy basics, or simply sit back and watch NASA’s live Earth‑from‑space streams. Turn off the soundtrack for a serene, meditative experience as the planet rotates beneath you.

5 A Little Light Music

Visit Incredibox →

Music can be a powerful antidote to idle time. If you already own an instrument, you have a head start; if not, Incredibox lets you craft catchy beats without any prior skill.

The web app lets you layer melodies, harmonies, and quirky sound effects to produce unique tracks. And unlike real‑world practice, there’s no risk of off‑key notes—every creation sounds surprisingly polished.

4 Get Swallowed By A Black Hole

Visit Gravity Points →

Ever wondered why planets orbit in neat circles? Gravity Points lets you experiment with gravitational forces in a visual sandbox, no physics textbooks required.

Click anywhere to create a gravity source; nearby celestial objects will drift toward it, forming elegant orbital patterns. Adding multiple points triggers a dance of mutual attraction, eventually merging into a dazzling black hole that devours everything in its path.

The simulation repeats endlessly, offering a mesmerizing loop of creation and destruction without any lecture.

3 Eat Shoots And Leaves

Visit omglasergunpewpewpew →

Sometimes you just crave mindless action: eat, shoot, repeat. This quirky endless runner hands you a character, a barrage of enemies, and a steady supply of peaches for snack breaks.

There are no levels, no leaderboards, and no registration—just pure, uninterrupted chaos. Because the game loops infinitely, you might want to set a timer so you don’t lose track of time.

2 Like A Bear, But Not A Bear

Visit Bored Panda →

If you’re the creative type seeking inspiration, Bored Panda serves as a sprawling gallery of DIY projects, art, and off‑beat inventions. From crocheting tiny dragons to building Chieftain tanks from toilet‑paper rolls, the site showcases the wildest ideas.

Each post provides tips, tutorials, and occasionally amusing fails, reminding you that creativity thrives on trial and error. Whatever bizarre or brilliant concept you have in mind, chances are someone has already documented a similar venture.

1 The Whole World In A List

Visit The Front Page →

Finally, there’s a hub that curates endless lists on every conceivable topic—from science breakthroughs to bizarre curiosities. With daily articles meticulously researched and beautifully written, you’ll never run out of fresh material to explore.

Since its launch in 2007, the platform has amassed a massive archive. Dive into a category that sparks your interest, or click the Random List button for a surprise deep‑dive into the unknown.

When you think of the 10 popular websites you use every day, you probably picture a seamless world of instant news, social updates, and endless video streams. Yet, for millions around the globe, that smooth experience is anything but ordinary—some of those beloved sites are outright blocked, filtered, or throttled by governments for political, cultural, or economic reasons. Below we dive into the ten most talked‑about sites that have run into the iron fist of censorship, complete with the back‑story, the countries involved, and a glimpse of how citizens cope.

10 popular websites That Face Censorship

10 Wikipedia: Turkey

Since 2017, Turkey has kept Wikipedia inaccessible to its citizens. The ban sprang from a standoff with the Wikimedia Foundation after the foundation refused to erase two articles that linked Turkey to the funding of terrorist groups fighting in the Syrian civil war. Ankara dismissed the claims as part of an anti‑Turkish smear campaign.

Prior to the block, certain users—suspected of being government officials—edited the contentious pages, excising references that painted Turkey as a sponsor of terrorism. Wikipedia’s volunteer editors restored those deletions and locked the articles to prevent further tampering by unverified contributors.

Turkey later supplied the Wikimedia Foundation with documents asserting that it was not backing any terrorist organization. Nevertheless, Wikipedia stood firm, emphasizing its policy of non‑interference in editorial decisions.

The Wikimedia Foundation stresses that all Wikipedia edits stem from independent volunteers and that only published sources qualify as references, underscoring the platform’s commitment to neutrality.

9 JW.org: Russia

Russia has placed JW.org, the official site of Jehovah’s Witnesses, behind a nationwide block. This move was part of a broader ban on the religious group after a series of covert legal actions by the Russian state.

For years, authorities targeted specific articles on JW.org they deemed offensive, prompting the site’s administrators to hide the content from Russian users. However, subsequent secret legal maneuvers culminated in a full‑scale ban.

The Russian government accused the sect of fostering extremism and hate speech, alleging that it endangered followers by discouraging medical treatment, tearing families apart, and exploiting child labor. The Supreme Court ordered the confiscation of all 395 Jehovah’s Witnesses churches across the nation.

8 Skype, Snapchat, WhatsApp, Telegram, And FaceTime: UAE, Qatar, And Saudi Arabia

Voice‑over‑IP (VoIP) platforms such as Skype, Line, Viber, and FaceTime face permanent or temporary bans across many Middle Eastern nations, including Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Morocco, and the United Arab Emirates (UAE). These countries also restrict messaging services—WhatsApp, Telegram, and Snapchat—because they can double as VoIP channels.

While Qatar technically does not block VoIP or messaging apps, its state‑run telecom often throttles traffic, effectively slowing down those services. In the UAE, WhatsApp, Snapchat, and FaceTime remain permanently inaccessible. Saudi Arabia once imposed restrictions but lifted them in 2017. Morocco briefly blocked Viber, Skype, Tango, WhatsApp, and Facebook Messenger in 2016.

The primary driver behind these bans is financial: governments own major stakes in telecom operators and fear that VoIP calls will erode revenue. Occasionally, the bans also serve to curb free speech. Some services have been unblocked after acquiring local licenses, showing a nuanced balance between control and market demand.

7 Vimeo: Indonesia

Indonesia’s authorities moved to block Vimeo after the platform was found hosting videos featuring nude or provocatively dressed women. While Vimeo also hosts a wealth of educational content, the government’s strict anti‑pornography legislation focuses solely on the perceived obscene material.

The ban was enacted under Indonesia’s anti‑pornography law, which empowers officials to block any site containing content deemed obscene, even if the site’s primary purpose is not pornographic.

Since the law’s enactment in 2008, Indonesia has already blocked 119 sites before adding Vimeo to the list. The decision sparked amusement among many Indonesians, who found it absurd that a mainstream video‑sharing platform could be labeled pornographic.

6 Telegram And Instagram: Iran

Between December 30 2017 and January 13 2018, Iran temporarily blocked both Telegram and Instagram following a nationwide wave of protests. Authorities feared that the platforms were being used to spread anti‑government sentiment.

Telegram dominates Iran’s messaging landscape, with roughly half of the nation’s 81 million people relying on it, despite only about 50 million Iranians having internet access. The government’s inability to censor anti‑government channels on Telegram prompted the ban.

Even after the services were restored, the state deliberately throttled internet speeds, causing messages to lag and making communication slower than usual.

5 Archive.org: Russia

The Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine, accessible via Archive.org, was blocked in Russia after it hosted an Islamic State propaganda video titled “The Clangs of Swords,” which Russian officials deemed extremist.

Russian courts identified the video on roughly 400 websites and demanded its removal. When Archive.org, among others, refused to comply, the government moved to block the site. Archive.org is just one of about 74,000 Russian‑blocked sites for a range of reasons.

4 Almost Every Website: China

China’s “Great Firewall” restricts access to a staggering array of sites, including social giants like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, search engines such as Google, as well as Wikipedia and countless news outlets—including The New York Times. Mobile Wikipedia in English appears to remain reachable, though selective page blocking may occur.

For many Chinese citizens, these blocked platforms are entirely foreign concepts; some even mistake Facebook for a search engine. The Cyber Administration of China decides which sites are permissible, while Western tech giants like Facebook and Google have tried to launch localized versions that comply with Chinese censorship standards.

When President Bill Clinton predicted in 2000 that the internet would open China to the world, the reality turned opposite: a generation grew up largely insulated from Western social media and foreign news, often indifferent to what lies beyond the firewall.

3 Telegram, Amazon Cloud, And Google Cloud: Russia

In April 2018, Russia targeted Amazon and Google’s cloud services in a bid to block Telegram, accusing terrorists of coordinating attacks via the messenger. A court ordered Telegram to surrender messages, which the platform refused.

Because Telegram’s Russian users rely on Google and Amazon servers rather than its own infrastructure, the Russian government blocked roughly 15.8 million IP addresses suspected of serving Telegram traffic. This sweeping action unintentionally disrupted Russian banks and e‑commerce sites that shared those IP ranges.

Telegram users turned to VPNs to bypass the ban, prompting the state to demand VPN providers block Telegram traffic as well. The government also urged Apple and Google to remove Telegram from their app stores.

Ironically, Russian authorities themselves used Telegram to contact journalists, later urging them to switch to ICQ. State‑controlled media also pushed citizens toward TamTam Messenger, another service caught in the IP‑blocking net.

2 Reddit: Russia

Russia’s censorship machinery also set its sights on Reddit after a post detailed how to cultivate psychedelic mushrooms—substances that can induce LSD‑like effects and are illegal in many jurisdictions.

Roskomnadzor, Russia’s communications regulator, wrote to Reddit demanding the removal of the offending content for Russian users. The agency even posted a request on VKontakte, urging anyone with Reddit contacts to alert the platform.

Reddit initially remained blocked, but after deleting the post, access was restored within hours. The episode sparked debate among Redditors: some argued the removal showed a lack of commitment to free speech, while a co‑founder emphasized the priority of keeping the site globally available.

This was not Russia’s first drug‑related block; in 2013, the nation also banned Wikipedia over a cannabis article.

1 YouTube: China, Iran, Sudan, South Sudan, Turkey, Syria, And Pakistan

Aside from China and South Sudan, the remaining nations that block YouTube share a majority‑Muslim population. The common catalyst across most of these countries is the controversial 2012 short film The Innocence of Muslims.

YouTube has been inaccessible in China since 2008. It has seen a back‑and‑forth in Turkey since 2007 and has been banned in Syria since the civil war erupted in 2011. Pakistan blocked the platform after the film surfaced in 2012, though the ban was lifted in early 2016 when Google introduced a locally censored version.

Iran first restricted YouTube in December 2006 after a sex video featuring an Iranian movie star appeared. Subsequent blocks followed the 2009 presidential election unrest and again in 2012 over the same film. Access in Iranian schools and universities remains uncertain.

Sudan and South Sudan both banned YouTube in 2012 over the film, with Sudan having previously blocked the site in 2010 after election‑rigging videos surfaced.

While the internet feels like a universal playground, the reality is that not every site is reachable everywhere. The 10 u s sites listed below have run into roadblocks in nations such as China, Turkey, and North Korea, where governments clamp down on content they deem risky or undesirable. Below we dive into each platform, the reasons behind the bans, and the local alternatives that fill the void.

10 u s: Why These Platforms Face Restrictions

10 Facebook

Facebook, one of the planet’s biggest social networking giants, finds itself barred in several nations, most famously China and Iran, with a partial clampdown in North Korea. In China, officials pulled the plug in 2009 after the Urumqi riots, claiming the service was being weaponized to rally anti‑government sentiment and stir unrest. The Chinese regime keeps a tight leash on the flow of information, worried that a platform like Facebook could become a megaphone for criticism or protest.

Chinese citizens instead turn to homegrown options such as WeChat and Weibo, both of which sit under close governmental watch. WeChat doubles as a messenger, payment system, and social hub, granting authorities a comprehensive view of users’ digital lives. By sidelining Facebook and pushing local apps, the government preserves social stability while tightening oversight of online interaction.

9 YouTube

YouTube, the go‑to destination for video lovers, has been banned or heavily throttled in places like China, North Korea, and even Pakistan at times. Pakistan first blocked the service in 2012 after the controversial “Innocence of Muslims” video sparked violent protests. The ban lifted in 2016 once Google promised to scrub offending material. In China, YouTube is completely off‑limits as part of a broader censorship drive that curbs politically sensitive content. Russia has also recently taken steps toward limiting the platform.

Where YouTube is barred, local rivals step in. Pakistani authorities monitor video output, while platforms such as Dailymotion or Vimeo serve as popular stand‑ins. In China, homegrown portals like Youku and Bilibili supply similar video experiences, albeit under strict government filters. These domestic services let regimes more easily police visual media, aligning content with official narratives.

8 Twitter/X

Twitter—now rebranded as X—has earned a reputation for rapid, open discourse, yet it’s banned or heavily constrained in nations including China, North Korea, and formerly Nigeria. China outlawed the platform in 2009, warning that its speed could spark social upheaval. North Korea blocks it outright to keep citizens isolated. Brazil recently moved against X in a showdown with Elon Musk over political content.

During Nigeria’s 2021 Twitter ban, officials claimed the service meddled in domestic affairs after a controversial tweet from President Buhari was removed. The ban was eventually lifted after Twitter agreed to certain conditions. In China, Sina Weibo carries the Twitter spirit but under tight surveillance. Domestic alternatives let governments replicate the service’s utility while keeping a watchful eye on the conversation.

7 Google Search

Google Search, the world’s most popular engine, has been off‑limits in China since 2010. Initially, the Chinese government tolerated a heavily censored version, but Google balked at further demands to scrub results. The standoff followed a spate of cyber‑attacks targeting human‑rights activists’ Gmail accounts, heightening tensions. By pulling the plug, China reinforced its grip on information flow.

Since then, Baidu has taken the throne as China’s top search engine, delivering results that conform to state‑approved narratives. Topics like the Tiananmen Square protests, Tibetan autonomy, and Taiwan independence are routinely filtered. The Google ban underscores how censorship can shape even the most fundamental online tool.

6 Wikipedia

Wikipedia, the massive open‑source encyclopedia, faces bans or restrictions in places such as Turkey (until recently) and China. Turkey blocked the site in 2017, accusing it of hosting articles that implied state support for terrorist groups—a claim the government denied. The ban lingered for nearly three years before the highest court ruled it violated free expression. In China, Wikipedia remains blocked because of entries on sensitive subjects like human‑rights abuses, Tibet, and Communist Party history.

The platform’s decentralized editing model makes it tough for authorities to control. Consequently, Chinese users rely on Baidu Baike, a state‑sanctioned encyclopedia that mirrors Wikipedia’s function but operates under government oversight. This approach lets regimes limit unfiltered knowledge while providing a familiar reference source.

5 Reddit

Reddit, often dubbed “the front page of the internet,” is banned in China and has faced temporary limits in Indonesia. China blocks it because its user‑generated content can quickly venture into politically charged territory that challenges official narratives. Indonesia briefly restricted Reddit over explicit material and discussions that clashed with local cultural norms, later lifting the ban after imposing content‑filtering requirements.

Within China, platforms like Baidu Tieba serve similar forum functions but operate under tight censorship, steering clear of politically delicate or culturally taboo topics. Reddit’s exclusion illustrates how governments prioritize control over open discourse, curbing platforms that champion unrestricted expression.

4 The New York Times

The New York Times, a globally respected newspaper, is blocked in China where officials object to its investigative pieces on sensitive matters such as leadership corruption, human‑rights violations, and political dissent. The ban kicked off in 2012 after the paper exposed the wealth of former Premier Wen Jiabao’s family, a story that embarrassed Beijing and prompted swift retaliation. Since then, Chinese authorities have kept the outlet off‑limits to limit foreign journalism that could criticize the regime.

Chinese readers turn to state‑approved outlets like Xinhua News Agency or the Global Times for international news, ensuring coverage aligns with official perspectives. The crackdown on the Times highlights how authoritarian regimes seek to shape public perception by sidelining independent journalism.

3 Dropbox

Dropbox, a popular cloud‑storage service, has been barred in China since 2014 over concerns about data privacy and governmental oversight. Chinese officials fear the platform’s encryption prevents monitoring, potentially allowing citizens to stash or share material deemed dangerous. Unlike many tech firms, Dropbox has refused to produce a censored version for the Chinese market, opting to protect user privacy.

China’s answer is Baidu Cloud, which offers comparable storage but complies with local data‑regulation rules that permit government access when required. The Dropbox ban showcases the clash between international privacy commitments and state‑driven surveillance demands.

2 PayPal

PayPal, the worldwide online payment powerhouse, never faced an outright ban but was forced to suspend operations in Turkey in 2016 after it could not meet local data‑storage mandates. Turkish regulators required payment firms to keep customer data on domestic servers—a stipulation PayPal’s existing infrastructure could not satisfy—leading to its exit from the market.

Local players like Iyzico and Papara stepped in to fill the void, reflecting Turkey’s broader push for data localization and tighter control over digital financial flows. PayPal’s Turkish setback underscores the hurdles multinational companies encounter when navigating divergent regulatory landscapes.

1 WhatsApp

WhatsApp, the beloved messaging app famed for end‑to‑end encryption, is banned or heavily restricted in nations such as China, North Korea, and several Middle‑Eastern countries. China, in particular, has limited WhatsApp since 2017, arguing that its encryption threatens national security by thwarting governmental monitoring of communications. Countries that prioritize surveillance often view such encryption with suspicion.

In China, WeChat dominates as the government‑approved alternative, bundling messaging, social networking, and payment features—all under close state oversight. The WhatsApp prohibition exemplifies the friction between robust privacy technologies and regimes that demand unfettered access to citizens’ digital conversations.

Ever wondered how the digital giants we use daily got their start? These 10 crazy origins reveal the unexpected beginnings of the platforms that dominate our lives. From love‑seeking video sites to candy‑collector marketplaces, each story shows how a twist of fate turned a modest idea into a global phenomenon.

10 YouTube Was A Dating Site

Today, YouTube is a hotbed of videos about almost anything. Curiously, it was intended as a platform to allow users meet prospective spouses at the time it launched in 2005. At the time, its founders, Jawed Karim, Steve Chen and Chad Hurley, wanted users to upload videos of them talking about what they wanted in a potential partner.

In keeping with their intentions, the founders used the slogan, “Tune in, Hook up” as the tagline of their website. No one uploaded any video though. Not even when the founders offered to give $20 to any woman who uploaded a video. The founders later decided to allow people upload videos about anything.

Jawed Karim, one of YouTube co‑founders, broke the ice when he uploaded an 18‑second video of himself at the zoo. As at the time of this writing, the video, titled “Me At The Zoo”, has over 79 million views with 3.8 million comments.Related: 10 Disturbing Channels From The Weird Part Of YouTube

9 Instagram Was Created For Meet‑ups

Instagram was founded by Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger in 2010. It was not the photo‑sharing social media site, as we know it today. It was not even called Instagram. It was called Burbn—after bourbon whiskey.

The naming was deliberate. Systrom—who singlehandedly founded Burbn—loved bourbon whiskey and thought it was cool to name his product after it. Besides, the name was in keeping with its purpose. Burbn was built to plan meet‑ups. Users could check in at any place they visited, make plans with friends to revisit the place in the future and later post photos of the meet‑up.

Burbn soon flopped because it was just too complex to use. Meanwhile, Systrom noticed that users were often more interested in sharing photos of their meet‑ups than in using the other features. He brought Mike Krieger on board and they both developed what would later become Instagram.

The duo planned Instagram as something in between Facebook and Hiptasmatic, which were the two top photo‑sharing sites at the time. Hiptasmatic had good filters but terrible photo sharing capability. Facebook was the opposite. Instagram would have both.

Systrom did not forget the lesson he learned from the failure of Burbn either. He made sure Instagram was as simple as possible. To achieve this, they removed everything else from Burbn except the photo sharing, commenting and like tools. Now you know why Instagram has a clean and easy‑to‑use interface.Related: 9 Sinister Facts About The Dark Side Of Instagram [WARNING: Disturbing]

8 WhatsApp Was Supposed To Be A Phonebook With Attitude

WhatsApp founders, Jan Koum and Brian Acton did not know they had created a messaging app at the time they released the first version of WhatsApp in 2009. Two years earlier, the two future billionaires, resigned their jobs at Yahoo to tour South America. During that time, they applied for jobs at Facebook but did not make the cut.

In January 2009, Koum acquired an iPhone. Then he thought about creating an app that would allow people to have a status update beside their names. The idea was to allow people to send information to prospective callers about whatever was happening to them. The updates could be anything. Like the user’s location or “battery low” when the user’s phone was about to die.

Koum named the app WhatsApp because it sounded like What’s Up. However, it never gained traction and Koum even considering quitting for a while. WhatsApp only became a hit after Apple introduced push notifications in June 2009. Push notifications allowed users to receive an instant notification whenever someone changed their status.

Koum soon realized that WhatsApp users frequently updated their status to communicate with themselves as if it were an instant messenger. He returned to the drawing board and WhatsApp version 2.0 was released soon after.Related: 10 Final Messages From People Facing Certain Death

7 Wikipedia Almost Showed Ads

Wikipedia is the online warehouse of information about everything under—and above—the sun. You will find almost everything there. Even other encyclopedias that have been around for centuries are no match for its repository of information.

Wikipedia owes its success to its users. It depends on people to create all of its content for free. But the lack of in‑house writers does not mean Wikipedia does not have some overhead costs. It needs to pay its programmers, hosting and fund some other running costs. And how about those lawsuits that will often pop up here and there? You cannot avoid lawsuits when you run a website like Wikipedia.

This means Wikipedia needs to make money somehow. The founders, Jimmy Wales and Larry Sanger, planned to generate money from paid adverts that would be displayed on the site. The sort of thing you see on almost every website today. Larry and Sanger hoped to make enough to cover salaries and hosting, even if they did not make a profit.

Fortunately for information seekers, Wikipedia went the non‑profit route when Sanger left in 2002. Wales decided he would never show ads. He would raise money from donations instead.

The management of Wikipedia was taken off Bomis, which managed it at the time, and handed to the Wikimedia Foundation. The for‑profit Bomis and the non‑profit Wikimedia Foundation are both owned by Jimmy Wales. In keeping with its new intentions, the website switched its domain from the .com domain it used at the time to the .org it currently uses.Related: Top 15 Funny and Bizarre Wikipedia Pages

6 EBay Was Created For Buying And Selling Pez Dispensers

Plans for what would later become eBay began sometime in 1994 when Pierre met his then‑girlfriend and current wife, Pamela Wesley. Pamela was a collector of Pez dispensers. For the unaware, Pez is a brand of candy. The Pez dispenser is a small container that releases one candy at a time.

Pamela had complained to Pierre about her inability to find people wanting to sell their dispensers. Omidyar got some ideas and on Labor Day (September 4) 1995, launched a small shopping area on his personal website. Pamela and other Pez dispenser collectors used the mini site to meet dealers who were willing to sell their dispensers.

However, Pierre soon noticed that people were showing up to sell everything from dolls to household items. Five months later, Pierre’s shopping mini site was worth $3 billion with over 2 million users. The website had become so big that he had to move to its own dedicated domain we call eBay today.Related: 10 Bizarre eBay Auctions

5 Facebook Was For Comparing Pictures

On October 28, 2003, Mark Zuckerberg launched a website he called Facemash. Considered the predecessor of Facebook, Facemash required users to click a button to determine which of the photos of two people was hotter.

To get his first users, Mark hacked into Harvard University’s database to steal photos used on students IDs. The website only lasted for a few days before the management of Harvard University shut it down. Mark was considered for expulsion but was saved when Harvard dropped charges.

Four months later, on February 4, 2004, Mark returned with a second website he called TheFacebook. It was almost like Facemash but with features to allow users meet new people. The photo comparison feature was also removed. Like Facemash, TheFacebook was initially limited to Harvard University students but gradually extended to other colleges, high schools and later, basically anyone.Related: 10 Ways Facebook Makes You Smarter

4 Flickr Was Supposed To Include A Chat Room

Flickr was founded by couple, Stewart Butterfield and Caterina Fake in 2004. While the couple had always intended Flickr as the image sharing and hosting site as we know it today, it was not supposed to be all about photos. The original plans included a chat room.

Butterfield and Fake first unveiled what would later become Flickr at the O’Reilly Emerging Tech Conference, San Diego, on February 10, 2004. Flickr was still in development at the time. It was not even their main product. Their primary product was a virtual game titled “Game Neverending”. Flickr was their side project.

The couple later decided to focus on the photo sharing and hosting program when they discovered its potential. However, they removed the chat capability. Meanwhile, Game Neverending never got past the development stage.Related: 10 Strange But Interesting Early Photography Fads

3 We Are Supposed To Send Tweets Via SMS

Twitter was called Twttr at the time it was founded in 2006. Twttr is pronounced “Twitter”, just like Twitter. It is the brainchild of Jack Dorsey even though Noah Glass, Biz Stone and Evan Williams would later step in as co‑founders. Dorsey planned Twitter as a social media site that could only be updated via SMS.

Twitter would quickly run into problems with this model. Workers at Odeo—a podcasting business founded by Williams and Stone—who were beta testing the app, saw their phone bills increase by hundreds of dollars.

This was clearly due to the massive amount of text messages they sent. One employee spent over $400 on SMS in one month. Odeo even started picking up the SMS bills of workers that used the service. Twitter later switched to an all‑web program at the time it launched, as the SMS model was clearly unsustainable.Related: Top 10 Ridiculous Instances Of Censorship In Pop Culture

2 FaceTime Was To Allow Users To Make Phone Calls From Their Macs

In 2007, Roberto Garcia assembled some Apple staff to develop a program codenamed Venice. Venice was supposed to allow iPhone users to make voice calls from their Macs. However, the program soon stalled and the team moved to other things.

A year later, Garcia morphed Venice into Game kit, an iPhone program that allowed users to video chat while playing online games. He and his team were successful this time. Game kit itself was added to Apple’s social gaming app, Game Center, in 2009.

However, the video calling feature of the Apple Game Center (the former Game kit) was later spun‑off to create the first version of FaceTime.Related: Top 10 Most Important Apps Of The Decade

1 Amazon Only Sold Books

Amazon sells practically everything these days—from pins to houses (literally houses . . . not just building materials) and home appliances. Interestingly, Amazon had very humble beginnings. It was founded in 1995 to sell books. Just books and nothing else. The only thing it ever sold outside books were music CDs, but even those were considered a secondary product.

Amazon primarily sold books for three years until 1998 when Jeff Bezos started to expand. On August 5, 1998, the New York Times reported that Amazon had acquired Junglee Corporation, an ecommerce and software company that operated a price comparison website and online marketplace. Think of Junglee as the Amazon of 1998.

Amazon also acquired Planet All, an address book and social networking site with 1.5 million users. Amazon itself had 3.1 million users at the time. At the same time, Amazon revealed it would also allow third party vendors to advertise their goods on its site.Related: Top 10 Bizarre Things You Can Buy on Amazon