The 15 Best Places to Waste Time on the Web

Best Time Wasters #15-#12

15. What Would Tyler Durden Do?

When all else fails, there is always celebrity gossip. Paris, Lindsay, Britney, and the whole gaggle of train-wrecks-that-just-won't-quit make for easy pickings on sites like Defamer, The Superficial, and IDontLikeYouInThatWay. All of the sites tend to carry nearly the same stories every day, but WWTDD (adopting Fight Club's imaginary antihero persona as blogger) has the cruelest write-ups and the biggest pictures. Meow.

14. Pogo.com

The king of mini browser games, Pogo's collection of card, parlor, puzzle, and casino-style diversions is a destination for hundreds of thousands of regular players--many of whom spend hours on end winning game tokens, graphical badges, and cash payouts of up to $5000. Real money is rare, though: Most users are happy to play dominoes, backgammon, cribbage, or dozens of other games, alone or against live opponents, just for kicks. Many games are free. Club Pogo members pay $40 a year for access to everything (over 100 titles), ad-free.

13. HOT or NOT

Remember this rate-how-hot-my-picture-is phenomenon that actually inspired a TV show? Well, hotornot.com is still around and, judging by the continued influx of pictures and the frequency with which users check their ratings, it's still extremely busy. (In fact, the site now contains more than 25 million user-submitted photos.) But what makes hotornot such an apt time-waster is that you can get virtually endless content delivered quickly with a single click. It may not be very worthwhile, but you have to give it points for sheer quantity and ease of navigation. Copycat sites are legion, from GothOrNot to PetsInClothes.

12. AOL In2TV

Why read about TV shows online when you can actually watch them? From Welcome Back, Kotter to Chico and the Man, In2TV has more awful television from the '70s to the present collected in one place than should be allowed by law. Just about the only thing that competes is ABC, which offers the most recent complete episodes of seven shows from its current prime-time lineup, including Lost, Desperate Housewives, and Grey's Anatomy. Beware: The AOL-provided service is terribly buggy and works only in the United States. (Sorry, Uzbekistan!)