Cool interactive websites

Most of the web is a place where you read things. The cool interactive websites in this category are places where you do things: move the cursor and something answers, scroll and the world changes, press a key and the page plays a note.

Start with Bruno Simon's Portfolio, a job-hunting page you explore by driving a small car around a 3D world. It is heavy to load and wants a desktop, but it is a famous example of what a personal site can be. For something communal, Internet Roadtrip puts a car dashboard on top of Google Street View and lets the whole crowd decide where it goes next. If you prefer to be alone with a scroll wheel, The Deep Sea takes you down through the ocean zones, past the Titanic wreck and on to the Challenger Deep.

Here is the quick test we use for this category: if you could swap the page for a screenshot and lose nothing, it does not belong. Interaction has to be the point, not a decoration on top of an article.

A few practical notes. Plenty of these are built for a mouse or keyboard and say so on their profile, so look for the mobile badge before you open one on your phone. Some, like Patatap, carry flashing-image warnings, and we flag those too.

Want a shorter, curated route? The interactive websites list picks the strongest 30 or so, and the fun websites list leans toward play. Or let the button choose for you.