Zombo.com is a single-serving site created in 1999. The site parodies Flash introductory web pages that play while the rest of a site's content loads. Zombo took the concept to a humorous extreme, consisting of one long introductory page that leads to an invitation to sign up for a newsletter.[1]
Zombo.com consists of a "blank" page, a colorful title, and a throbber animation of seven colorful pulsating round, circular discs, making them appear as if they are rotating quickly. The website also contains an audio clip of a man welcoming the visitor to "Zombocom", with the promise of a place where "everything is possible".
After some time, the option to sign up for a "newZletter" appears. It is a continuation of the joke as it is a short link to http://www.zombo.com/join1.htm, which tells the reader that this particular option is not available yet. This message is conveyed as a humorously written thank you in the same register form of "newZletter," stating, "ThankZ for your patience." The website's HTMLmarkup also contains the comment "Please Visit http://www.15footstick.com our other website ThankZ", which leads to another parody website.
In the HTML5 version, the audio clip will loop to the start when it ends, removing the "newZletter" message. The HTML markup comment was also removed. Additionally, the discs in the center spin rather than change color.
Popularity
Video game producer Bill Roper[2] and artist Dave Rowntree have each listed Zombo as their favorite website; Rowntree explains, "I think [zombo.com] paraphrases the [inter]net. Promises you the earth[sic] but delivers a bit of animation with a scratchy soundtrack!"[3] Web animator Joel Veitch chose Zombo.com as the least useful website since "it doesn't do anything except tell you how wonderful it is."[4]Ian McClelland, currently managing director of Guardian Australia,[5] but at the time Senior Producer for Cartoon Network, also cited Zombo.com as the least useful site in the same column two years previously[6] "Utterly useless, absolutely brilliant". Mark Sullivan of PC World listed Zombo among the Internet's ten most useless websites, concluding, "Well, in fact, nothing happens at zombo.com."[7] In 2004 Samela Harris of The Advertiser called Zombo.com "the most welcoming website on the Internet",[8] and in 2007 Daryl Lim of Digital Life called Zombo.com "the ultimate time-waster".[9] A listing in The Australian writes, "Zombo.com has just one joke, but it's a good one."[10] Zombo.com was also featured on Neal.fun's Internet Artifacts.
On 4 September 2013, Matthew Inman, creator of the webcomic The Oatmeal, listed Zombo.com as his favorite website in an interview with Runner's World.[11]
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