Google Chrome Experiment Turns Web into Maze Game

News
By Jane McEntegart
published

An incentive to try Chrome for mobile as well as the desktop browser.

Google wants you to use Chrome. To get you to use it, the company has turned its browser into a game. In fact, the game in question actually requires you to install both the mobile and desktop versions of Google's Chrome browser. Pretty clever, huh?

Dubbed Google Chrome's World Wide Maze, the game involves opening the same tab on both your phone on your desktop and then using your phone as the controller for a little ball that appears on your screen. You tilt your phone to make the ball roll around your favorite sites.

Engadget reports that the game will work with both the iPhone and Android devices, though you need to be running Android 4.0 or iOS 5.0 or higher for it to work. Check out the video for yourself below, or head on over to Chrome.com/maze and give it a whirl.

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Jane McEntegart
9 Comments Comment from the forums
  • teh_chem
    Nifty video. But I'd rather google patch the most recent update of chrome for Android--ever since the last update, it goes into a continuous crash-restart loop on my phone. :/
    Reply
  • kelemvor33
    Tried the QR code scanner option and it doesn't work. Just goes to chrome.com/maze/null
    Reply
  • CrArC
    Holy crap that was so much fun. Nice idea! There were some kids back in the day at uni who had a similar concept but that was a 2D platformer.

    Tomshardware was difficult to navigate with the phone/tablet tilt controls. There seems to be a half-second, if not longer, delay between tilting and the browser responding. Wonder if it's due to the web link or whether the Android devices are being taxed quite hard rending the map while you play? Perhaps something with faster internet/a top-end android device could let us know how it works for them?
    Reply
  • yzfr1guy
    Yeah let's get more kids into utilizing and feeding the great google marketing/government tracking machine....
    Reply
  • borisof007
    I tried this on the tomshardware homepage, pretty fun and really neat! I'll have to try more pages later.
    Reply
  • tomaz99
    yzfr1guyYeah let's get more kids into utilizing and feeding the great google marketing/government tracking machine....
    Good point...I'll tell them to go out side and play with some sticks in the mud. Either that or just use M$...since they don't comply with judicial orders or worry about profits...
    Reply
  • alidan
    super monkey ball
    Reply
  • queenweb
    Reminds me of Marble Madness!!!
    Reply
  • upgrade_1977
    Not working here, can connect phone and browser, but then it does some kind of calibration, which works, but tilt function not working in game, only letting me jump..
    Reply