We've always spoken about surfing and hacking the Internet, as though it were tactile. Now thanks to Chrome World Wide Maze, the web can be gamed, and it feels more like a malleable surface than ever.
This innovative release from Google Japan renders any website as a three-dimensional video game landscape, complete with points, elevators, and ticking timers. And it transforms your smartphone into a synched motion-sensitive controller.
Chrome World Wide Maze is driven by WebGL — a souped-up and open-source JavaScript engine — which means that no plug-ins are necessary. All you need is a Chrome browser on your desktop and a Chrome app on your iPhone or Android device.
It’s a lot of fun in a Marble Madness kind of way, but the groundbreaking thing about Chrome Maze isn’t gameplay. What’s far more revolutionary is the ability to explore the Internet as a pure physical space, an experience that even the most hardcore Safari loyalists should appreciate.