Surfs up!
August 9, 2010 11:10 AM   Subscribe

Trailblazers is a live web surf event where you can show off your PRO surfing skills. No keyboard, no google, just pure links! At the event, the participants use a prepared computer with a modified browser: the address bar is removed and each click on a link is tracked by a counter. The goal is to get from one website to an other one by just clicking on links. The winner is the one who had to click the least links. TRAILBLAZERS is a project by Theo Seeman, an interface design/new media student at the Merz Akademie in Stuttgart, Germany. That’s also where the first event took place. One of the missions was to browse from http://imdb.com to http://thepiratebay.org, an other was to browse from http://web.mit.edu/ to http://icanhascheezburger.com/. The next event will be at ARS Electronica in Linz, Austria, September 3rd. Check out this video.
posted by Fizz (24 comments total) 8 users marked this as a favorite
 
Oh, man, I totally had this idea already. My idea was to start with some utterly sanitary, family-friendly site like disney.com, and see who could be the first to reach pornography.
posted by Faint of Butt at 11:12 AM on August 9, 2010 [2 favorites]


It's a pretty fascinating idea. I'd love to see something like this only metafilter based. Or maybe something like this already does exist. Still, an awesome idea.
posted by Fizz at 11:14 AM on August 9, 2010


Step #1: Get to wikipedia.

This is a neat idea, though. Wish the video had more technique.
posted by Lemurrhea at 11:27 AM on August 9, 2010


Is there a place we can see the winning trails?
posted by abc123xyzinfinity at 11:28 AM on August 9, 2010


Oops, first link! I swear I looked...
posted by abc123xyzinfinity at 11:29 AM on August 9, 2010


Needless to say I would not be winning such an event.
posted by abc123xyzinfinity at 11:30 AM on August 9, 2010


I made it from web.mit.edu to icanhascheezburger in seven clicks. I'm not sure it's legit though, as mainly I just had to get to facebook, where I knew a friend had posted something from ICHC recently. I couldn't have done it without already being logged in to facebook.
posted by rusty at 11:36 AM on August 9, 2010


I recall something more or less exactly like this during the dotcom era; "Web That Smut!"
posted by aramaic at 11:50 AM on August 9, 2010 [1 favorite]


Saw the pics. Wouldn't recommend them. Can't even imagine the video.

The contest reminds me of this common metaphor
posted by mazola at 11:54 AM on August 9, 2010


I made it in 19 (wasted a lot of time clicking random links on web.mit.edu first). Ended up on twitter, then youtube, then found a post with an icanhasacheezburger video. And this is the best thing I accomplished at work today.
posted by devonia at 11:58 AM on August 9, 2010


Does the modified browser have a context menu? If it did then you could use copy/paste to grab individual letters from the text of the page and build up a search query. For example to get from MIT to icanhazcheezburger you can search for 'google' at the MIT home page, then click on the result that talks about using google scholar, then click on the google scholar link in that article, and then go to google web search, and then search for icanhazcheezburger with Feeling Lucky. That's five "clicks", but only if copy/paste through the context menu works.
posted by Rhomboid at 12:02 PM on August 9, 2010


Ah, this reminds me of the "How many clicks to Hitler" Wikipedia game that some friends invented (I think).

Kittens has a score of 2: Kittens -> neutering -> forced sterilization -> Hitler
posted by fontophilic at 12:13 PM on August 9, 2010 [3 favorites]


I made it from web.mit.edu to icanhascheezburger in seven clicks. I'm not sure it's legit though, as mainly I just had to get to facebook, where I knew a friend had posted something from ICHC recently. I couldn't have done it without already being logged in to facebook.

I don't think being logged in is kosher, but there's a 4 step short cut if being logged in is allowed and you follow someone on twitter that's linked ICHC recently.
web.mit.edu->web.mit.edu/press/->twitter.com->ICHC
posted by juv3nal at 12:24 PM on August 9, 2010


and then go to google web search

Which I thought wasn't allowed?

However, if copy paste query construction is allowed, searching for google from the mit home page can get you to seagrant.mit.edu/google_test.html (which arguably isn't google.com even though it's serving up google results) where you can search for icanhascheeseburger (no "z" available to copy) which gets you there on the next click. So that's 4 clicks.
posted by juv3nal at 12:33 PM on August 9, 2010


Andy Ihnatko came up with "Web that Smut!" some time prior to 1997, back when MacUser was still a current US publication, i.e., before it was folded into MacWorld by its publisher. The column is so old that it seems to have pre-dated inclusion on the web.
posted by valkyryn at 12:34 PM on August 9, 2010 [1 favorite]


Here's how bad at the game I am: I couldn't find the past winning trails on their website, so I guess abc123xyzinfinity beats me. I tried clicking on all the links under "The Holy Trails" on this page, but they all 404.

I've usually played this game with Wikipedia. Hit the "Random Article" link. That's your target. Hit the link again, and then get back to your target. No auto-generated pages, like Categories.
posted by Galaxor Nebulon at 12:46 PM on August 9, 2010


The Wikipedia Game, previously on MetaFilter.
posted by The Winsome Parker Lewis at 1:02 PM on August 9, 2010


I couldn't find the winning trails info either. I did, however, enjoy the irony that an interface design student produced that completely incomprehensible website. Without this post I wouldn't have even known what it was about.
posted by rusty at 1:40 PM on August 9, 2010


I did, however, enjoy the irony that an interface design student produced that completely incomprehensible website.

Hah. I agree completely. That is a poorly designed site, though I wonder if it is intentional. Probably not.
posted by Fizz at 2:00 PM on August 9, 2010


I made it from imdb to Pirate Bay in 3 clicks (over Twitter), and from MIT to Icanhazcheezburger in 4 (over Wikipedia). Interesting challenge, but it soon loses its appeal...
posted by Skeptic at 3:54 PM on August 9, 2010


Ah, "no keyboard"?! That makes it a tad more challenging...
posted by Skeptic at 3:55 PM on August 9, 2010


The Wikipedia Game, previously on MetaFilter.

That was fun.
posted by delmoi at 5:23 PM on August 9, 2010


This reminds me of trying to break out of those in-store kiosks they used to have in some electronics retail stores. They'd usually be running Internet Explorer, but the address bar was disabled, so you'd start out at the retailer's homepage and have to figure out a way to get from there to product review and price comparison websites. Things got interesting when you found mailto: links that would then open up Outlook...
posted by caaaaaam at 7:53 PM on August 9, 2010


MiT to Twitter. Twitter to a WP blog. WP blog to wordpress.org to wordpress.com to any Cheezeburger site.
posted by thebenman at 9:37 PM on August 9, 2010


« Older $$ = :) ??   |   Solution World Hat Newer »


This thread has been archived and is closed to new comments