Swell 3D prides itself in being one of the only three-dimensional websites in the world. There are a few other websites about 3-D art, but this one was actually built in 3-D anaglyph from the ground up, and that, I think, makes it unique. (UPDATE: almost unique. Two weeks after I posted this, the 3-D Barcinski & Jeanjean site was launched.)
So you can imagine my excitement as I read about "Z3D," a browser plug-in for Firefox by Claudio Benvenuti, who says it will turn any website 3D right before your eyes! Of course I installed it and tried it out.
What it does is replace the background of every page with an anaglyphic tattersall grid, and replaces all text styles with gray anaglyph type. It really does look as though the text is hovering above the background. And when you mouse over a hyperlink, the text hovers even higher. So it works, I guess.
Since Z3D doesn't do anything with images, it will give the best results on pages full of text links. I tried it on Drudge Report and The Huffington Post.
Well, that's what it does. The text is in 3D, but the style is trashed. Columns are broken. Text is sometimes rendered in the wrong place, or seemingly missing from the page entirely. I appreciate the effort, but Z3D reminds me of those online programs that will translate any Web page into Pig Latin or Leet. It's clever, and it's interesting to see the results, but I can't imagine anyone finding it useful, or even enjoyable for long.
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