A single-serving site (SSS) is a
website
A website (also written as a web site) is a collection of web pages and related content that is identified by a common domain name and published on at least one web server. Examples of notable websites are Google Search, Google, Facebook, Amaz ...
composed of a single page with a dedicated domain name and which serves only one purpose.
The term was originally coined by
Jason Kottke
Jason Kottke (born September 27, 1973) is an American blogger, graphic designer, and web designer known for his blog Kottke.org. He won a Lifetime Achievement Award as a blogger. , his blog is ranked #66 overall and #20 in Science on the Technor ...
in February 2008,
although single-serving sites have existed since the dawn of the web.
History
Origins
The origins of single-serving sites trace back to the creation of the
World Wide Web
The World Wide Web (WWW), commonly known as the Web, is an information system enabling documents and other web resources to be accessed over the Internet.
Documents and downloadable media are made available to the network through web se ...
. The oldest known single serving site was
Purple.com, which was launched in 1994. This website contained no links and its only content was a purple-colored background.
In August 1995, wwwdotcom.com was launched, the first of several sites dubbed as "The Last Page of the Internet."
Mike Kuniavsky launched Tired.com in November 1997. This site asks the viewer if he/she is tired and if so, why. In 1999,
Zombo.com was launched, featuring a page with seven rotating
colour wheel
A color wheel or color circle is an abstract illustrative organization of color hues around a circle, which shows the relationships between primary colors, secondary colors, tertiary colors etc.
Some sources use the terms ''color wheel'' & ' ...
s. Many people view this site as a parody of several other single serving sites created in the late 1990s.
Metababy was an early single-serving site that relied on
user generated content
User-generated content (UGC), alternatively known as user-created content (UCC), is any form of content, such as images, videos, text, testimonials, and audio, that has been posted by users on online platforms such as social media, discussion f ...
.
Spread
One of the best known single-serving sites is
YTMND
YTMND, an initialism for "You're the Man Now, Dog", is an online community centered on the creation of hosted memetic web pages (known within the community as ''fads'', ''YTMNDs'' or ''sites'') featuring a juxtaposition of an image (still or sho ...
, created in 2001.
[ In 2007, several single-color descendants of Purple.com were launched, including SometimesRedSometimesBlue.com and LetsTurnThisFuckingWebsiteYellow.com.]
See also
*List of internet phenomena
Social and cultural phenomena specific to the Internet include Internet memes, such as popular themes, catchphrases, images, viral videos, and jokes. When such fads and sensations occur online, they tend to grow rapidly and become more widesp ...
*Single-page application
A single-page application (SPA) is a web application or website that interacts with the user by dynamically rewriting the current web page with new data from the web server, instead of the default method of a web browser loading entire new pages. ...
* Minisite
References
{{reflist
Single-serving sites