A Web Surfing Contest With No Keyboard and No Google Allowed [Hyperlinks]

Source: http://gizmodo.com/5608658/a-web-surfing-contest-with-no-keyboard-and-no-google-allowed

OK, so-called web surfers, listen up. You might be able to ride from page to page with your speedy search engines, sure, but could you make it from Amazon to the Pirate Bay only clicking links?

That's right—just you, your mouse, and a whole sea of hyperlinks.

That was the challenge leveled to participants of Trailblazers, a web browsing competition that recently held its inaugural contest in Stuttgart, Germany. Participants were challenged to "Surf the classic way from amazon to pirate bay."

From a chart posted on the Trailblazers site (which is designed, we'll say, in a "neo-classical" web style), it seems as though an individual named "tobi" earned the old-school surfer crown.

The next Trailblazers competition will take place on September 3 at Ars Electronica in Linz, Austria. Make sure your peripherals are regulation ahead of time. [Trailblazers via TodayandTomorrow via The Atlantic]

Update: Thanks to honorary web surfing champion of the evening, commenter Justin, for finding these pairs, which were apparently the actual challenges for each successive round of the competition. I guess "amazon to pirate bay" was just their tagline?

1. [www.apple.com]
http://get.adobe.com/de/products/flashplayer/
(I think this one is pretty funny)

2. [web.mit.edu]
http://icanhascheezburger.com/

3. [imdb.com]
http://thepiratebay.org

4. [www.4chan.org]
http://www.scientology.org/

5. [brockhaus.de]
http://de.wikipedia.org/

6. [www.bundestag.de]
http://www.bigbrotherawards.de/

7. [pleaserobme.com]
http://polizei.de/