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Broadband changes everything. Forget text and still images. One glimpse of the fancy sites people are putting on the Web these days, and the old stuff will seem practically as passé as a poodle skirt. Prepare yourself for sites that move, talk, sing, and caress your psyche like a soft summer breeze.

But not every site tailored for broadband access is a winner. In fact, of the 100 or so sites I visited via my home-office DSL connection, most delivered less-than-compelling content or were so heavily ad-laden that I couldn't wait to leave. Still others, such as the high-profile AtomFilms.com, generated choppy, unsatisfying video playback in my tests.

Eventually, I found a handful of sites that truly take advantage of broadband to provide content with a serious hook, either informational or entertaining. Undoubtedly, between the moment I describe them and the time you read this, the sites will metamorphose numerous times. But of course, that variability need not be seen as a problem: Never knowing what you'll find the next time you visit them is simply part of the fun.

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