Good on a phone

A vast library of freely licensed photos, maps, diagrams and sound files, each with its licence spelled out. The picture shelf behind Wikipedia.

One click, one random Wikipedia article, repeated until the afternoon has quietly gone somewhere else.

Wikipedia's own catalogue of the pettiest disputes in its history, including years of war over a hyphen.

The editors' own curated list of the encyclopedia's strangest entries, and the best rabbit hole entrance there is.

The free library of source texts — treaties, speeches and out-of-copyright novels, transcribed and proofread by hand.

Wikipedia articles served as a vertical swipe feed, which is either a public service or the end of civilisation.

Drag Wikipedia cards onto a timeline in the right order. Three lives, and you will lose one to the invention of the fork.

Wikipedia with a readable layout, a proper contents sidebar and images that stop fighting the text.

A dictionary of every word in every language, including etymologies, declension tables and regional slang.

Live safari drives broadcast twice a day from South African reserves, with guides answering viewer questions over the radio as they go.

A dilemma, a tempting benefit, a horrible catch, and the percentage of everybody else who pressed it regardless.

Ten minutes out of somebody else's window somewhere in the world, filmed by them and left quietly running.

The forecast as an animated map, with wind, waves, temperature and a dozen models to argue between, free and without an account.

Answers computed rather than retrieved: integrals, unit conversions, orbital mechanics and the nutritional content of a Mars bar.

Victorian engravings cut apart and given modern dialogue, producing jokes no other format could quite deliver.

Six goes at one five-letter word, the same word for everybody, once a day. The puzzle that spawned an entire genre in three months.

A dictionary showing real usage, related words and examples pulled from the wild rather than agreed by committee.

Readings from thousands of air monitoring stations worldwide on one map, colour-coded from a calm green to a genuinely alarming maroon.

Free indicators for every country going back decades, with charts, maps and bulk downloads on each series.

Plain map and flag quizzes covering every continent, aimed at classrooms and quietly excellent for adults as well.

Over a hundred solitaire variants with proper undo, statistics and card backs from 2007. Still the most complete one going.

The free, open-source answer to GeoGuessr, with unlimited rounds, a daily challenge and multiplayer that costs nothing.

Guess the country from its silhouette alone, with each miss handing you the distance and compass bearing to the real answer.

Live counters for population, emissions, water use and books published, ticking faster than is entirely comfortable.

Pixel canvas laid over a world map where you claim a handful of tiles at a time and defend them against the neighbouring country.

Recordings of very nearly every bird call on earth, uploaded by amateurs and searchable by species, country and even call type.

One expanding circle to breathe along with, adjustable to box breathing or 4-7-8, and nothing else on the page.

Stick figures on romance, sarcasm, maths and language, with a second joke in the alt text of every single strip.

Widely reckoned the strongest reverse image search for faces, places and heavily cropped photos. Worth trying when TinEye finds nothing.

Unicode styling for places that forbid formatting, so bold and italic survive a paste into a profile bio.

Old Faithful on a live feed, plus static cameras on the geyser basin and the north entrance, run by the National Park Service.

Nonprofit solutions journalism on climate, housing and democracy — more sober than cheerful, but pointed the same way.

Two decades of first-person hauntings submitted by the public, filed by country and picked apart politely in the comments.

The Norwegian met office's forecast, famously accurate across Scandinavia and unusually calm about admitting uncertainty everywhere else.

Piles combining diacritics onto every character until your text bleeds into the lines above and below it.

You can do anything at Zombo.com. The welcome message has been loading since 1999 and it has never once explained itself.

Top-down battle royale for a hundred players with a full match inside five minutes, no download and no launcher to update.

Newborn animals from zoos and aquariums worldwide, with their names, weights and the keepers' notes attached.

Satellite imagery refreshed through the day, with storm tracks, wildfire hotspots and rainfall radar layered over the top of it.

The sequel quilt, darker and stranger than the first, still folding into itself with no end and no explanation.

Real research that needs human eyes: classify galaxies, transcribe ships' logs or count penguins, and end up in a published paper.