Riverside Talent

www.riversidetalent.eu

Riverside Talent is an agency that, from what I understand, promotes and markets people with talent from Hungary and its surrounding regions. The purpose of the site, however, is pretty irrelevant. The design is what struck me. You can easily navigate through the site by using the navigation bar at the top, but that takes all the fun out of it. What makes the website interesting is the flash movie below the navigation bar through which you can explore the page.

30 Days of Night

www.sonypictures.com/movies/30daysofnight/index.html

So I guess this movie came out sometime recently called 30 Days of Night. I haven't really heard much about it until I saw this phenomenal site they had made for themselves. Its essentially just a single flash movie that you can loosely travel through by dragging your mouse to the left or the right and there are certain clickable regions that, when clicked on, show a glimpse of a scene or images related to or maybe from the movie. Also there is a little game that you can play and it is completely integrated into the website. This is one of the nicest websites I have seen in a while. The navigation is good, the art design is extremely well done, and all the elements of the website are seamlessly integrated. Way better and more immersing than just watching a trailer.

Montreal en 12 Lieux

www.mtl12.com

This website is pretty interesting. It pretty much just has a bunch of videos on it that you can control which direction they play and the videos themselves are generally very visual. I haven't really explored the site much more than that... but I'm pretty sure it just shows different locations in Montreal and is a sort of virtual tour of certain specific areas of the city. The site does not have an English version so be warned, unless you speak French its a bit of a stab in the dark but the site is very visual so its not too hard to find your way.

ZUNE

www.zunejourney.net

As much as the ZUNE media player is just a poor attempt at ripping off the iPod, they have made a really nice and creative website for themselves. I won't go into any detailed descriptions of the site, but it is most definitely a visit.

Reasonably Clever

www.reasonablyclever.com

This is just like any other character creator website like The Hero Machine or South Park Studio but it's fun because you create a Lego character which is something we are all familiar with doing in real life unlike the other character creators.

Bad Cookie

www.badcookie.com

This site is really pretty stupid, but definitely entertaining... Pretty much the site is just a virtual fortune cookie, except more like a virtual misfortune cookie. Check it out... its fun.

Industrious Clock

http://yugop.com/ver3/stuff/03/fla.html

This is a really simple website, I just think the idea is really cool. Nothing special, and very minimalist. It is essentially just a clock... nothing more.

Red Interactive

http://ff0000.com/

Another site I've been meaning to post for a while but never got around to it. This site really serves no purpose except to advertise the design capabilities of Red Interactive, which is a web design group. The art design and user interactivity of the site is very impressive. the fact that within the site itself you are assigned an avatar through which you interact with the website is a relatively novel idea and could have great potential for the future of internet navigation. Definitely worth a visit.

99 Rooms

www.99rooms.com

This is one of those sites I have always meant to put up on here but somehow never got around to it. Its pretty sweet. Basically you just explore the 99 rooms which come alive when you click on certain objects. Its very well done and has a really cool ambiance.

MegaPenny

www.kokogiak.com/megapenny/

There is nothing spectacularly spectacular about this site. I just found it fun and interesting. It shows pictures of what a lot of pennies look like, and how many pennies are in circulation, and other such things. Its just fun and is definately worth a quick browsing.

FishyCam

www.fishycam.com

This is sort of a novelty site. Its pretty simple, just a live feed from a webcam that is directed onto a fish tank. I thought it was a pretty clever idea so i figured it was worthy enough. Don't tap on the glass...

AlbumBase

www.albumbase.com

AlbumBase is by far the best site for downloading full albums. It's way better than p2p programs like limewire or kaazaa because, for one, the files are all perfect and you almost never get corrupted or mislabeled files. Also you get the whole album, and I dunno about everyone else but I need an entire album not just one song, that would be like seeing one scene in a movie and being content with that. Also it beats torrents because it downloads much faster since you download directly off a site, so the speed is not hampered by lack of popularity.

Sony BRAVIA

http://bravia.sony.eu/bravia.html

Sony's product line "BRAVIA" has made a really nice website for themselves. First of all, the navigation is pretty cool. To move from one area of the site to another you actually use the arrow keys on your keyboard. Each area of the site also has its own unique navigation within the section itself. They also make amazing commercials, which can be viewed on the website. I definitely recommend checking them out, and for those of you who have interests in video production they have making of videos as well. Overall this site has an amazing design and has fun activities to do within the site itself.

Musicovery

www.musicovery.com

This free music player lets you plot your mood on a spectrum and then creates a chart of songs to fit your mood. Its a bit like liveplasma.com except that instead of finding artists similar to another artist it actually finds artists that fit your mood, and it also plays music for you, which is a feature that liveplasma.com greatly lacks. Also You can further narrow your results by genre, year, and whether the tunes are hits or not. It's a great way to discover new music and find the perfect tunes to fit your mood.

Don't Click

http://dontclick.it/

Dontclick.it is a very different website... There is not a single button in the entire website (except when you first enter). Right now the website is pretty much just there to research how people react to this enormous change in web navigation. See how it feels to navigate without the click.

Neave TV

www.neave.tv

I think its pretty self explanatory. Basically its a lot like watching TV except that its all short videos, no advertisements, and instead of choosing the channel you choose a genre from the tabs at the bottom of the screen which disappear once you move the cursor away from them.

Mouse Party

http://learn.genetics.utah.edu/units/addiction/drugs/mouse.cfm

This website is just a really cool way to explain how different recreational drugs affect the mind. The explanations are simple but with the use of animations to go along with them it is actually very informative.

Naughty American History

www.naughtyamericanhistory.com

A pretty funny and, I can't deny, entertaining site where you essentially experience (virtually of course) a little strip trivia. Its pretty simple... answer a question, get it right, watch an article of clothing come off. And don't worry girls... there is a male teacher also.

Steve's Weird House

www.vrseattle.com/pages/browse.php?cat_id=845

The website www.vrseattle.com hosts many virtual tours of different places around the world. The idea is pretty cool. Basically a bunch of pictures are taken to cover an entire sphere of view around the photographer. When visiting the site you can pretty much look wherever you want within the rooms. Steve's Weird House has the most abundant content for the eyes to absorb so this post focuses on his particular collection of virtual tours but there are many others.

MUVA

http://muva.elpais.com.uy/

Similar to the caveman's crib, this website also creates a virtual 3-dimensional space instead of the the more typical 2-dimensional websites that we see everyday. This website has created two virtual museums (note: the newer one is a lot better and more immersing than the older one) that the visitor can walk around in and look at pieces of art in the same sort of way that we would in real life. It is essentially an image gallery but the navigation is much more interesting than any other ordinary image gallery.

Monoface

www.mono-1.com/monoface/main.html

Im just throwing this website up for shits. Its interesting to see how people could look if their faces were composed of different attributes from multiple faces. The photoshop work done on this site is also pretty impressive. I only wish they showed what all the people looked like before they collaged their faces... but I guess you could always try and piece them together yourself...

Liveplasma

www.liveplasma.com/

While we're on the "if you like that then you might like this" genre, Liveplasma is an awesome website for finding new music. You give the site an artist or group name and it creates a web of similar artists and groups. This website is a bit more interactive than Pandora Radio but it does not play the music for you like Pandora does. But what is nice about Liveplasma is that you can also do the same kind of search for movies, directors, or actors that you like. Also I just like the way it creates a web of artists that are then grouped and located according to how they relate to the central artist.

Pandora Radio

www.pandora.com

Tired of listening to the same handful of musical artists and groups all the time. Trying to find that new sound for your iPod orgy? Pandora Radio finds it for you. Unlike other online radios where the music you hear is generally based on genre, you create your own stations for yourself by typing in the name of a band or artist you like and Pandora finds bands and artists with a similar style for your ears to snack on.

TV LInks

www.tv-links.co.uk

www.videolemon.com

These two websites are the best source for entertainment on the internet. Now that YouTube has been sold to Google they've pretty much eliminated any full feature copyrighted material. TVlinks.com has the best quality and largest collection of streaming movies and TV shows on the internet. The videos are well organized and you can usually find whatever you are looking for. But if you cant, go to VideoLemon.com and search for what your looking for and it compiles search results from multiple streaming video sites.

Orisinal Games

www.ferryhalim.com/orisinal/

This is very simply a game website. However, what makes this website different than other game websites is its simple minimalist design and layout. Most game sites are completely cluttered with links and advertisements and navigation can give the visitor a headache. This one keeps it real without all the additives.

Falling Sand Game

http://fallingsandgame.com/sand/sand.html

This is less of a website and more of a game but I still found it worthy enough for this blog. This game basically has a bunch of different compounds that the player can mix together and different reactions may take place. It is extremely simple but fun.

Caveman's Crib

www.cavemanscrib.com

This website is sort of an advertisement for geico, however, geico's name only appears three or four times in the entire site. But it is part of the "So easy a caveman can do it" advertising campaign, so I guess you could say it is kind of an advertisement for an advertising campaign... I dunno. Regardless the navigation of this website is extremely immersing and interactive. The viewer can actually visualize themselves in a three dimensional space rather than a the typical two dimensional space that most websites adhere themselves to.

A is for Apple

www.aisforapple.net

A is for Apple is a web art project by David Clark (whoever that is) that is very different visually and navigation-wise. Basically the website is a collection of interactive flash pages that all share a single common ground... the apple. The visual design is chaotic and so is the navigation. But the chaos and randomness is what sets this site apart from the humdrum of the ordinary.

Puzzle Road

http://puzzleroad.apoka.com/PuzzleRoad.html

Puzzle Road is more than just an image gallery. Rather than most portfolio style websites, Puzzle Road engages the visitor by making them piece together the images in order to view them in full, and then allowing the the visitor to interact with the image itself. Also there is a a little challenge to spice it up for those who like fun and games.

Color of My Sound

www.colorofmysound.com

This website explores ideas of synesthesia by simultaneously playing a song and having the listener choose which color most adequately describes the song. After picking the color it shows the listener the most popular color choices for that particular song.