36 Niche Encyclopedia Ideas Like Technovelgy.com
Technovelgy.com is a masterpiece of niche internet. One guy. One obsession. A catalog of every gadget, device, and concept from science fiction — with notes on whether real engineers have built it yet. It gets hundreds of thousands of visitors per month. It ranks. It has fans. It generates real revenue from ads and donations.
The formula: pick one niche with obsessive fans, build the most complete reference on earth, let Google do the rest. Here are 36 ideas in that mold.
Part 1: Fiction and World-Building Encyclopedias
Technovelgy's direct neighbors. Readers of these genres are obsessive catalogers by nature.
1. Fantasy Poisons and Toxins Encyclopedia
Every poison, venom, and toxin that appears in fantasy literature: what it does, which book it comes from, how long it takes to kill. Cross-reference with real-world toxicology where applicable. "Tears of Lys" from Game of Thrones probably maps to a real compound — which one? Audience: fantasy readers, tabletop RPG game masters, writers. Search demand: people googling "[fantasy book] poison" is enormous.
2. Fictional Religions Encyclopedia
Every invented religion from novels, films, games, and TV: founding texts, gods, rituals, afterlife beliefs, clergy hierarchy. From Bokononism (Vonnegut) to the Force (Star Wars) to the Old Gods of Westeros. Organized by theme, tropes, and parallels to real-world faiths. Useful to: worldbuilders, comparative religion students, screenwriters.
3. Fictional Foods and Recipes
A catalog of every invented dish, drink, and food item in fiction. Lembas bread, Pan-Galactic Gargle Blaster, butterbeer, Soylent Green. For each: the source, the described taste, fan recreation attempts, recipe roundups. Already exists in fragments across Wikis but never as a single authoritative reference. High Pinterest and YouTube crossover potential.
4. Fictional Currencies and Economies
Every invented monetary system across fiction. Gold dragons, Latinum, credits, caps, Gil. Exchange rate attempts, inflation mechanics described in canon, parallels to real economic theory. Audience: economists who are also nerds, game designers, worldbuilders. Nobody has built this properly.
5. Fictional Weapons That Inspired Real Ones
The direct cousin of Technovelgy but scoped to weapons. Every fictional weapon that preceded a real-world equivalent: laser guns (actual laser weapons), taser (from Tom Swift's electric rifle), etc. With timelines and patents where available. Defense researchers actually google this stuff. So do military historians.
6. Fictional Maps Encyclopedia
Every hand-drawn or officially published map from a fictional universe. Tolkien's Middle-earth, Westeros, Discworld, Earthsea. High-resolution scans, history of the cartographer, errors and inconsistencies documented, fan corrections. Massive image search traffic. Print-on-demand shop obvious monetization.
Part 2: Lost and Forgotten History
The internet is shockingly thin on deep-dive reference sites for specific historical niches. First-mover advantage is still real.
7. Extinct Trades and Professions
Every job that no longer exists: gong farmers (medieval sewage cleaners), lamplighters, knocker-uppers, leech collectors, pure finders (dog poo collectors for tanneries). Each entry: what they did, when it died out, why, what replaced it. Evergreen content. Teachers love this. Journalists cite it. Writers steal from it.
8. Lost Shipwrecks Encyclopedia
Every documented shipwreck — location (when known), cargo, cause, recovery status, treasure value estimates. Already fragmented across Wikipedia and dive sites. A single searchable, georeferenced database with depth, coordinates, and legal status (can you salvage it?) would be genuinely useful. Audience: scuba divers, maritime historians, treasure hunters (a real community).
9. Demolished Buildings of the World
A catalog of every significant building that no longer exists. The original Penn Station. The Palace of the Soviets (never built). Old Wembley. With before/after photos, demolition dates, what replaced them, preservation controversies. Architects cite it. Urbanists share it. The "preservation regret" emotion drives huge social shares.
10. Historical Executions Encyclopedia
Every notable public execution in history: method, date, crime, location, crowd size estimates where documented, political context. Morbid but genuinely historical. Death penalty researchers, criminologists, legal historians, and true crime adjacent audiences. Ethically straightforward when framed as serious historical record.
11. Unsolved Disappearances of the Ancient World
Not just the Roanoke Colony. Every civilization, city, person, fleet, or army that vanished without clear explanation. The Bronze Age Collapse. The Indus Valley cities. The Ninth Legion. Organized by region, era, and how "solved" each mystery currently is. Ancient mysteries content gets enormous traffic. Nobody has organized it all in one place rigorously.
12. Historical Plagues and Pandemics Catalog
Every epidemic and pandemic with a death toll above 10,000: dates, geography, pathogen (if known), death count, social consequences, how it ended. Not a Wikipedia clone — a navigable reference with timelines, maps, and cross-links to how each plague changed laws, borders, and economies. Post-COVID this is a permanently hot topic.
13. Dead Olympics Sports Encyclopedia
Every sport that appeared in the Olympics and was later removed: live pigeon shooting (1900), tug of war (1900–1920), solo synchronized swimming (yes, really), rope climbing, dueling pistols. Rules, results, why dropped. Sports fans find this endlessly amusing. Very shareable. The "dueling pistols" discovery alone gets retweeted thousands of times every Olympics cycle.
Part 3: Language and Words
Linguists and word nerds are some of the most loyal repeat visitors on the internet.
14. Historical Slang Encyclopedia
Every documented slang term from every English-speaking era: Victorian slang, 1920s jazz vocabulary, WWII GI slang, 1970s CB radio trucker talk, 1980s valley girl speak. Each entry: definition, first documented use, example sentence, cultural context, whether any descendent survives today. "What did people say in 1890?" is googled constantly by novelists, game writers, and curious people.
15. Words That Changed Meaning Encyclopedia
Semantic shift documented rigorously. "Awful" used to mean "inspiring awe." "Silly" meant "blessed." "Manufacture" literally meant "made by hand." Every major meaning-reversal and drift in English (and other languages for international editions) with evidence, timelines, citations. Linguistics twitter loves this. Teachers assign it. The content is endlessly shareable.
16. Extinct Languages Reference
Every documented dead language: how many speakers at peak, where spoken, what killed it, what survives (texts, loan words, place names), revival attempts. Cornish, Dalmatian, Prussian, Ubykh. Sorted by extinction date, geographic region, language family. Language preservation communities are small but intensely loyal. UNESCO partnerships possible.
17. Cursing and Profanity Through History
A serious academic treatment of how profanity evolved in English. What was taboo in 1400, in 1700, in 1900, today. Why the worst words shifted from religious oaths to bodily functions to slurs. With sourced literary examples from each era. This has a huge audience: linguists, writers, comedians, curious people. Melissa Mohr wrote an excellent book on this ("Holy Sh*t") but there is no comprehensive online reference.
18. Untranslatable Words of the World
Every documented word from any language that has no direct English equivalent. Saudade, Mamihlapinatapai, Jayus, Schadenfreude, Toska. Organized by emotion category, language family, and how frequently cited in academic literature. "The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows" proved this market. A rigorous, properly sourced encyclopedia version would dominate search.
Part 4: Sports, Games, and Play
19. Board Game Variants Encyclopedia
Every official and fan-documented variant of major board games: chess variants (there are hundreds — Bughouse, Fischer Random, Crazyhouse, Atomic), Monopoly house rules, Go regional rulesets, Scrabble tournament variants. Playable rules, origin, competitive status. The chess variant community alone is enormous. BGG (BoardGameGeek) has data but no clean encyclopedia format.
20. Defunct Sports Leagues Encyclopedia
Every professional sports league that ever existed and folded: the ABA, the USFL, the XFL (first run), the WHA, the NASL. Season-by-season records, notable players, why it died, financial details where available. Sports historians and podcast hosts cite this constantly. Nobody has made a clean one.
21. Traditional Games of the World
Every traditional game from every culture that has ever been documented: Mancala variants, Patolli, Senet, Knucklebones, Kolowis Awithlaknannai. Rules, equipment, cultural significance, current survival status. Board game designers, anthropologists, physical education teachers, travel writers. Strong international SEO because the games are googled in dozens of languages.
22. Gambling Systems and Their Failure Rates
Every documented betting system: Martingale, Fibonacci, Labouchere, D'Alembert, Paroli, card counting variants. Mathematical breakdown of each: expected value, variance, bankroll requirements, house edge after applying the system, documented cases of real use. Gamblers google this compulsively. Academic citations from behavioral economics papers. Affiliate monetization obvious but do it ethically.
23. Speed Records Encyclopedia
Every verified speed record across every category: land, water, air, human-powered, animal, projectile, particle. With date set, who holds it, where, vehicle or organism involved, and which records are disputed. Physics teachers use this. Motorsport fans share it. "Fastest animal" and "fastest train" are googled millions of times monthly.
Part 5: Science and Technology Catalogs
24. Failed Technologies Encyclopedia
Every technology that was heavily funded, widely predicted to succeed, and then died: Betamax, HD-DVD, Google Glass (first run), Segway, the Hyperloop (RIP), LaserDisc, mini-disc. Each entry: inventor, peak investment, what killed it, whether any descendant survived. Tech journalists cite it. VCs reference it. Product managers use it for "what not to do" research. Permanently evergreen.
25. Historical Patents Encyclopedia
Notable patents from history: the first telephone patent, the airplane, Velcro, the intermittent windshield wiper (and the lawsuit), the pop-top can. Each with: original patent text simplified, inventor biography fragment, what it was worth, who it spawned. Innovation researchers, IP lawyers, inventors. "Most important patents of all time" gets searched constantly.
26. Cryptography Through History
Every documented cipher, code, and encryption system: Caesar cipher, Vigenere, Enigma, one-time pad, RSA, modern AES. For each: how it works, when it was broken, by whom, military or commercial use. Security students learn with this. Puzzle solvers and escape room enthusiasts love it. Strong evergreen demand.
27. Mathematical Constants Encyclopedia
Every named mathematical constant with significance: pi, e, the golden ratio, Euler–Mascheroni constant, Feigenbaum constants, Apery's constant. For each: definition, history, who discovered it, where it appears in nature, applications, known digits. Students google these every day. Math communicators cite it. The competition is surprisingly weak.
28. Medical Instruments Through History
Every significant medical device or instrument: the stethoscope, the forceps, the speculum, the iron lung, the EEG, the MRI. Origin story, inventor, first use, how it changed medicine, current version. Medical students, historians of science, science writers. "Who invented the stethoscope" is searched 30,000 times per month.
Part 6: Culture and Society
29. Cults and New Religious Movements Encyclopedia
Every documented cult and new religious movement: founding date, leader, beliefs, peak membership, what happened (many ended badly, many still exist quietly). Scholarly, not sensationalist. Cross-referenced with academic NRM (New Religious Movement) research. True crime adjacent but more intellectual. Sociologists cite it. Ex-members google it for context years later.
30. Urban Legends by Country
A global catalog of urban legends organized by country and culture: American alligators in sewers, Japanese kuchisake-onna, South African tokoloshe, French bête du Gévaudan. Origin, variants across regions, what the legend reveals about cultural anxieties. Anthropology content with mass appeal. "Urban legend" is searched millions of times. The Snopes model but global and organized as a reference.
31. Historical Fashion Crimes
Every documented law, sumptuary code, or regulation about clothing and fashion: Elizabethan England's laws about who could wear purple, French laws banning certain fabrics, 20th-century laws about hemlines and swimsuit modesty. With date, jurisdiction, penalty, whether enforced. Fashion historians, costume designers, legal historians. Content is genuinely funny and shareable.
32. Banned Books Encyclopedia
Every book that has been legally banned somewhere, ever. Not just the famous list (1984, Lolita, Lady Chatterley) but every regional ban, every school board removal, every Islamic world suppression, every Soviet-era prohibition. Country, year, reason given, legal outcome. Librarians, journalists, academics, writers. The ALA publishes a limited version. A truly global, complete one does not exist.
33. Famous Feuds Encyclopedia
Every documented long-running feud: families (Hatfields and McCoys), corporations (Adidas vs Puma — actually brothers), artists (Tupac vs Biggie), scientists (Edison vs Tesla), nations (France vs England, 1000 years of it). Origin, escalation timeline, resolution or current status. Extremely shareable. History podcasters use it. Business case studies reference it.
34. Counterfeit Products Through History
Every famous counterfeiting case: fake Stradivarius violins (thousands exist), Han van Meegeren's Vermeer forgeries, the Hitler Diaries hoax, fake Rolex economics, counterfeit medicine epidemics. For each: how the fake was made, how long it fooled experts, how it was caught. Art world, journalism, economics. "How are fake [luxury good] made" is searched constantly.
35. Doomsday Predictions That Didn't Happen
Every documented end-of-world prediction with a specific date: William Miller's 1844 prediction, Jehovah's Witnesses' multiple failures, Harold Camping's 2011 billboard campaign, Y2K. Date predicted, who predicted it, how many believed, what actually happened, what the group did after. Skeptic community loves it. Journalists cite it every time a new prediction cycles through media. The data is scattered; nobody has collected it all cleanly.
36. Notable Hoaxes Encyclopedia
Every significant documented hoax in human history: the Piltdown Man, the Cottingley Fairies, the Cardiff Giant, crop circles, Balloon Boy, the War of the Worlds panic. For each: the hoax, who perpetrated it, why, how long it lasted, how it was exposed, consequences. Science educators cite it. Journalists reference it. "Famous hoaxes" is searched constantly and the existing Wikipedia lists are thin. A proper encyclopedia with deep entries per hoax would dominate.
8. The Pattern
Every idea above shares six traits with Technovelgy:
- One obsessive niche. Not "history." "Shipwrecks." Not "science fiction." "Sci-fi technology inventions."
- Catalogable unit. There's a thing you can make an entry for. A wreck. A slang word. A failed tech. A poison.
- Completeness as the moat. You're not the best writer. You're the most complete. That's the real defensibility.
- Cross-reference value. The entries get more valuable when linked. "This slang term appears in the same era as this fashion law."
- Long-tail SEO. Hundreds of individual pages, each ranking for a specific query. "[Book title] poison" or "who invented the stethoscope."
- A person behind it. Technovelgy works because you feel Bill Christensen's obsession. The best niche encyclopedias have a visible author.
None of these requires a team. None requires funding. They require time, obsession, and a conviction that the internet deserves a real reference for this thing. That conviction is surprisingly rare — which is why the ones that exist, like Technovelgy, tend to own their space completely.