In what they’re calling a throwback to the original comic book they released to announce the launch of Chrome, Google has today unveiled a new site meant to educate users about browsers and the web. 20 Things I Learned About Browsers & The Web is actually an interactive web app meant to look like a children’s book. And while the book’s content is all about web technology, the interactive book itself shows off some of that technology as it’s built entirely in HTML5. And it’s very slick.
In fact, it looks a lot like an Apple iBook — the book platform that Apple created for the iPad. It has a nice and clickable table of contents, a quick-jump area along the bottom, and if you hover over the corner of a page, it will even curl (clicking on the curl will turn the page). But again, all of this is done with HTML5.
Other cool things include the bookmark which doubles as a share button. If you hover over the area, the bookmark will drop down and reveal buttons to share on Facebook, Twitter, or Buzz. And because each page is actually a different HTML page with its own URL, you can share any individual page rather than the entire book itself. But despite each book page having its own URL, there is no reloading that goes on as you page through, it just looks as if you’re leafing through a book. Again, very slick.
As you might expect from Google, the entire book is also searchable. And there’s a way to “turn down the lights” (make everything but the book’s pages dim). And, thanks to HTML5, once you load the book, you can disconnect from the web and it will still work (assuming you’re using an HTML5-compliant browser).
Google worked with illustrator Christoph Niemann on the book.
