Single-Serving Sites

Highly specific Web sites that serve a single (usually inconsequential) purpose.

Noting the limited scope of the Web site WhereIsBalloonBoy.com – which appeared almost immediately after the Falcon Heene hot air balloon farrago – Randy James commented in Time:

The Internet is teeming with whimsical websites that really don’t do very much. Or, better said, they do simply what their straightforward domain names advertise. Wondering if this week’s episode of Lost is new? CheckIsLostARepeat.com. Curious about New York’s skyline tonight? VisitWhatColorIsTheEmpireStateBuilding.com. Stumped in the kitchen? Maybe HowtoBakeAPotato.com could help. And if you’re ever in need of an ego boost, AmIAwesome.com might restore your swagger (the site’s response: VERY.)

These clever, if rudimentary, Web destinations are dubbed “single-serving sites,” and they range from marginally useful (IsItChristmas.com answers “No” 364 days a year) to handy (HowMuchIsAStamp.com) to the surprisingly interesting (HowManyPeopleAreInSpaceRightNow.com). Not all the sites answer questions; some just state facts. The legume featured inThisPeanutLooksLikeADuck.com is, indeed, uncannily ducklike. Eighty-eight-year-old Godfather actor Abe Vigoda is still alive, according to the one fact available at AbeVigoda.com.

James attributed the term to Jason Kottke, who used it in a February 2008 blog post:

Lately I’ve noticed a pattern of people building Single Serving Sites, web sites comprised of a single page with a dedicated domain name [that] do only one thing.