Sickest HTML 5 hack yet. Got Chrome? Play Katamari on web pages: http://goo.gl/fwkk9 /via @mattcutts
Context & Ripple Effects
The Katamari page-hijacking trick lands mid-way through a two-year run of browser-as-arcade demos. Google opened the arc by showing HTML5 running Quake entirely in the browser in April 2010, then answered Apple's HTML5 push that June with the HTML5Rocks showcase site, and Facebook followed in January 2011 with its own sprite-engine experiments for in-browser HTML5 games.
What makes this hack notable against that backdrop is its target: instead of a dedicated canvas or a purpose-built level, it turns arbitrary live web pages into playable terrain inside Chrome. The tweet itself is pure amplification — Matt Cutts sharing it and Dare Obasanjo (@carnage4life) re-sharing — but it signals how quickly these demos now travel through the tech-Twitter circuit rather than waiting for press coverage.
First-order effects
- Chrome gets another proof point in its case as the demo browser: the hack only runs there, so anyone wanting to roll pages into Katamari balls has to use Google's browser.
- Web developers get a fresh demonstration that the DOM plus JavaScript can host real-time game mechanics on existing pages, not just pre-built canvases.
Second-order effects
- Browser vendors keep competing on showcase experiments rather than spec-sheet claims — Google's Quake and HTML5Rocks demos set a cadence that rivals must answer with their own playable stunts.
- Every plugin-free game demo chips at the assumption that rich browser gaming requires Flash, tightening pressure on Adobe's runtime just as Facebook invests in native HTML5 game tooling.
Third-order effects
- If the pattern holds, the browser consolidates as a game distribution platform in its own right, with marketing shifting from 'which plugins you install' to 'which engine renders fastest' — a contest Google is deliberately seeding with each experiment.
The trend: Browsers are being repositioned from document viewers into game platforms through a steady drip of vendor-sponsored HTML5 demos, with Chrome currently setting the pace.