Google's Amazing Browser Experiments

Barence writes "On the day that Microsoft launches Internet Explorer 8, Google has unveiled a new site that showcases the Javascript performance of its Chrome browser. Called Chrome Experiments, the site includes 19 extraordinary animated games and widgets that push the browser to its limits. One experiment, called Browser Ball allows you to 'throw' a bouncing ball from one browser window to the next. Google Gravity, on the other hand, collapses the normal Google homepage into a pile at the bottom of the screen. However, you can still enter search terms into the box and watch the results drop from the top of the browser window."

Comments

Works in Safari too

[Wabin]

Most of these work in Safari4, and some even on the iPhone. This kind of stuff, written entirely in HTML5 and javascript, is one of the things Apple is hoping will make the lack of flash on the iPhone a moot point.

Re:Works in Safari too

[Thelasko]

Yeah, the gravity thing seems to work on Firefox 3 as well. Most of these things should work with a browser that is relatively standards compliant.

Re:Works in Safari too

[Thelasko]

Yep. I guess most video sites will move swiftly to javascript-decoding and rendering their flvs and mp4s.

HTML 5 has <audio> and <video> tags, the actual decoding and rendering is handled by the browser.

Re:Works in Safari too

[gbjbaanb]

we've been playing with that one on Safari and Chrome side-=by-side. Chrome's JS is significantly faster, but it does have a bug in that text (inside the google search bar) only appears if the bar is level. On Safari it appears when the bar is at an angle.

Performance: FF is acceptable, Safari is worse so some are ok, some are not, Couldn't be bothered to try it on IE.

Chrome performs like client desktops used to. I look forward to our new browser-based overlords.

Re:Obvious user question

[nobodylocalhost]

it is a "corporate policy" because most of the HR software works only in IE6, and the reason most of the HR software works only in IE6 is because the HR departments demand IE6 compatibility... get where this one is going?

Re:Obvious user question

[mspohr]

Portable Firefox works on my locked down WinXP corp PC.

DUPE

[AKAImBatman]

This was reported on yesterday: http://tech.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/03/18/2128256

Reader Al notes too that "Google has launched Chrome Experiments, a site where Javascript coders can upload projects that make use of Chrome's speed and processing abilities. The site already features a handful of cool 'experiments' including a balls that jump between browser windows, a gravitationally-challenged version of the Google homepage and a game that runs through nine different browsers. It's cool stuff alright, but some experts wonder whether browser security might be a more important thing to focus on."

Here's my comment about real-time Chroma-Key replacement in Firefox.

Re:Hello Slashdot..?

[Anonymous Coward]

Push your MS-branded horns back into your head -- IE8 isn't being released until noon.

Maybe, just maybe, they're waiting to release when you can actually download the browser?

Re:Obvious user question

[nschubach]

Thumb drive.

Opera

[ledow]

And most of them work just fine in Opera 9.64, despite the scary warnings.

And the ones that don't, it seems to be because Opera deliberately disallows that sort of action (e.g. the pages knowing where they are on screen in relation to other pages).