No Joke: 3D Books Return To Google

It might have started as an April Fool’s joke but–hey–if you’ve got the code, you might as well use it. And so, Google Books has returned to the Internet the option to view all its books in glorious 3D.

With just a pair of red-cyan 3D glasses (you still have those from the June edition of Playboy, right?) and a tweak to the book’s URL, you can see the text of any book on Google jump right off the page–just like in real life!

To get the 3D version of any book you need to add &edge=3D to its URL (just make sure the code is added before the # in the URL). All the text in book will then appear as an anaglyphic image (i.e.: that classic way of doing 3D with two colour layers superimposed on each other). As you can see from the image above–points to whoever guesses the book–the 3D effect is designed to make the text look like it is curved on the page with the middle of the page appearing closer to you than the sides.

I suspect there’s much more cynicism and humour than practicality in this new feature from the web giant. Cynicism because it sounds like the folks at Google are as amused by the explosion of 3D tech as I am. It seems that if something can be made 3D, someone is going to try (and succeed) to make money off it. Humour because, well, 3D text in a book is ridiculous.

And while it may have been a joke to begin with, this is still a pretty fun easter egg (of sorts) for you to use to amuse your friends at parties. Thanks, Google, for improving my social life.

[Inside Google Books]