Slashdot Mirror
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."
Why does this frecking site do not work in ie6...
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.
Most exciting phrase in science: not "Eureka!" but "Hmm... That's funny..." -Asimov (abridged for \. limits)
I know we're all supposed to hate Microsoft, but come on.
Here's a story: On the day Microsoft releases IE 8 -- the most popular web browser in the world -- Slashdot doesn't mention it, but posts a trivial article about Google Chrome benchmarks.
That's what it's all about in the demoscene, right? People are in awe when they see what you can do in 64kB on a PC and what a 6502 can do with cycle-exact programming. Yet anyone interested more in results than in technical experiments will simply expand the platform and make these demos look like child's play, because that's what they are: An exercise in testing the limits of a very limited platform. HTML and the javascript browser API should never have become the basis of a UI standard. The privacy problems, performance deficiencies and the baroque API will haunt us for decades. Look ma, I'm using a 2GHz dual-core processor to simulate a couple of 2D balls bouncing around in almost fluid motion.
This was reported on yesterday: http://tech.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/03/18/2128256
Here's my comment about real-time Chroma-Key replacement in Firefox.
Javascript + Nintendo DSi = DSiCade
You don't need Chrome to make these experiments work. This is more of a demonstration of what web standards compliance can do than what Chrome can do. The coolest part is that it pretty much makes most Flash related content obsolete.
One of our competitors trademarked the term "hypothesis". From now on, we will call them "boneheaded ideas".
Seriously though, what exactly is accomplished here?
First and foremost it's a marketing stunt. If you launch an "experiment" in any other browser than Google Chrome they warn you that it might not work (but allow you to "Roll the dice" and try.
Second, it shows that it's possible to do pretty things using the common web standards alone, without proprietary plugins like flash or silverlight.
I'd rather see that time spent getting a proper version for Linux, and extension support.
That's really close minded. The teams working on Chromium/Google Chrome are not the people behind these demos and the lack of Linux and extension support is being worked on - I'd rather wait a little longer than them becoming a major clusterfuck. Besides, these demos are really just a fun prove of concept.
There's been a lot of stories lately about new browser releases and how they have the fastest Javascript performance yet.
I asked why Javascript performance was such a big deal, and I didn't feel any answers I got were particularly convincing.
These experiments however have answered my question much more convincingly, the answer is not that existing applications need it but that future innovations in Javascript can achieve some pretty amazing things if Javascript implementations are efficient enough.
>Second, it shows that it's possible to do pretty things using the common web standards alone, without proprietary plugins like flash or silverlight.
THIS RIGHT HERE!
The whole point of this is to show that there is no need for stupid plugins like Flash and Silverlight.
When HTML5 comes around with support for Video and Audio, the experiments that depended on Flash can be amended to work with them.
When i saw these experiments, i cried manly tears of joy.
Let this be the beginning of the end!
To hell with plugins!
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).