Chrome Experiments

I love Processing – but are its days numbered? What about Flash? A year ago, nobody would’ve seriously asked these questions — but times are changing fast. For years, Flash, and then Processing, were the tools-of-choice that designers used to explore and experiment with interactive media. But now, as the web’s focus moves to open standards, the most vibrant communities are those building around standards such as HTML5 and JavaScript. Take a look at jsdo.it — it’s a great example of a community where people are working together developing code and discussing their approaches.

Last year Google launched Chrome Experiments — a site for people to post experiments with JavaScript and the browser, and a showcase of the best of that work. And in the 18 months since it’s launched, a lot of amazing stuff has been posted. They may sometimes be a little rough around the edges, or not work with every browser, but some of the things that people have created really are jaw-dropping. Here are a couple of my favorites…

Links for the above experiments: Keylight, Apophis 2029, Browser Ball, Browser Pong, Sketchpad, and Swirling Tentacles.