Google Thursday released World Wide Maze, a fun Chrome browser video game that uses smartphones as motion controls.
Don't accuse Google of not knowing how to inject some fun into Web browsing.
The Mountain View, Calif., company's latest experiment unveiled Thursday transforms websites into a 3-D landscape maze that users then can tilt to move a marble. More amazingly, users tilt the maze by moving around their smartphones like a game controller.
"World Wide Maze," as the mini-game is called, can be accessed at chrome.com/maze when using the Chrome browser. Once there, users can launch the Chrome app on their phones and sync the two together. Users can do this through Tab Sync, by scanning a QR code or simply by emailing themselves a link.
Once that's been done, users are prompted to choose the website they want to convert into a maze. Google, of course, offers itself and its various websites as options, but users are free to use any website, including latimes.com.
The maze shows up on users' computer screens. Using the smartphone, gamers must then roll the marble through the 3-D maze. They can also collect little blue coin-like bits and jump around, but users must be careful -- they could roll or jump off the page.
Google released another similar game, "Chrome Super Sync Sports," last month, but "World Wide Maze" takes it to another level.
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