I’ve always been impressed with websites that get you to interact with them. Extra points if they are providing a valuable service at the same time. I have a small collection of cool sites, but they are all several years old. Where is the new stuff developers and marketing agencies? I guess the functionality got lost in the creation of games and online or phone apps. That’s too bad!

First off the simple – yet effective – beat box machine that has a cartoon character create the mix of your choosing.  It’s just well done and fun to play with. Give it a try.

Now for something completely different. Haven’t you always wanted to tell a man dressed in a chicken suit what to do? You need the Subservient Chicken. Burger King launched this ad campaign way back on April 8, 2004. You just type in what you want the chicken to do and he does it. How does Burger King afford to pay some guy to stay in his chicken suit all day and night in his living room and follow your every command? Well . . . they don’t. All the clips are pre-recorded. You can read up on the ad campaign and some of the more than 300 commands the chicken will follow on Wikipedia. Are you ready to make that chicken dance? Give it a try.

The Subservient Chicken did lead to some great applications. One of my favorite has been Coast Capital Savings bank – A Credit Union in British Columbia. You can ask Julie anything. Try ‘Daydream’, ‘insurance’, ‘date me’, ’clap’ or even ‘origami’. She’s actually pretty helpful in directing you to the information you need. Say Hi to Julie.

I might be missing something – but it seems the internet has lost it’s edge for creating an interesting and new user experience. It’s now all about pay per click google ads, social marketing (youtube, twitter, facebook, blogs) or big budget advertising campaigns. Someone do something cool before I lose faith!