Best-Loved Avant Garde Sites

by Shel Kimen

Innovative: that broad term to describe the leaps and bounds of creativity - in design, technology, and content. The sites listed below lead the pack through Web space; they've cleared a path for the rest of us. Take some time to browse these landmark pages (if you haven't already), if for no other reason than to see a bit of Web publishing at its finest.

c|net online (MIRRORED)
http://www.cnet.com

As far as we're concerned, c|net offers one of the best Web sites online. Period. Nothing quite compares to the level of quality, innovative design, and breadth of content. c|net, at its base, is a source for technology-related news, but the Web site is significantly more than that. It's a link to an amazing software archive (http://www.shareware.com), an online resource tool, a how-to guide to the Web, a link to a compendium of search engines (http://www.search.com??), and a chronicler of the latest industry movers and shakers (you can stay up-to-date on the latest news via c|net's daily radio broadcast). There's even an audio tour of the site that's available. And let's not forget that it looks outstanding - even though we were somewhat disappointed by the recent home page redesign, which homogenizes c|net's unique look - and it hasn't missed the boat yet on a Netscape-enhanced extension (even the Frames are palatable). Navigation is simple, and thankfully well-organized (there's even a navigational help area). Content is concise, well-written, up-to-the-minute and useful. The server is lightening fast. Make no mistake: c|net is Web-o-licious.


Deep Forest
http://mbinter.com/deepforest/deepforest.html

If there's a reason to get Macromedia's Shockwave plug-in for Netscape, it's this. The Deep Forest site is miles ahead of most other Shockwave-enhanced sites - entertaining and enthralling, even if you don't like Deep Forest music. The Director files that you'll download may eat up some time and bandwidth, but believe us, it's worth it. Listen to a variety of Deep Forest samples, and then mix in your own, on your desktop in your Netscape 2.0 window. There's also an interactive tour guide, and, of course, miscellaneous info. about the band to give the site an even balance of techno-glitz and content. The super bonus: The music continues to play, even when you are running another application with Netscape in the back. Fabulous!


Lumiere
http://www.lumiere.com

This is the first fashion e-zine that really feels like it's supposed to be a fashion e-zine. It doesn't just transpose concepts from paper to Web space, it creates a new publishing model. A hybrid, Lumiere takes the usual fashion content - runway photos, interviews with designers, hair and beauty tips from the experts - and mixes it with the best of HTML design and wizardry. Instead of making you flip through pages and pages to see all the latest from your favorite designer, Lumiere creates video-like sequences of still shots to show you the breaking trends of haute couture. It's elegant and sleek, just like those long-legged, wonder-thins who lace the pages.


razorfish
http://www.razorfish.com

As the Internet and the Web gain acceptance across the main stage, the bleeding-edge barons of technology have to work hard to keep their techno stunts at the top of the list. razorfish, a Web design firm from New York, pulled out of the gates so far ahead of the rest of the horses that innovative design is just par for the course these days. razorfish was one of the first sites to make successful use of client/server push and pull, creating an animated effect with still images. The razorfish impressive portfolio includes work for Zima (http://www.zima.com/), Sony Digital Handycam (http://cons3.sel.sony.com/SEL/consumer/camcorder/digital.html), Bankers Trust (http://www.bankerstrust.com/), and the New York Botanical Garden (http://pathfinder.com/vg/Gardens/NYBG/; part of Time Warner's Pathfinder). Visit the site to sample outstanding layout, tech tricks, and the *BlueDot*, razorfish's own art/culture, content-rich e-zine a la magnifique.


rezn8
http://www.rezn8.com

One expects a Web design firm to reserve innovative space for its own self-promotion. rezn8 won't let you down - perhaps *brilliant* is a more appropriate word for the rezn8 Web site. It starts with a whiz-boom-bang of push/pull animation. But the animation here isn't the shotsy "see Jane run" picture flow, it's a suite of astonishing and beautiful photographs and 3D art blurred to create ambiance. Yes, this site is all about ambiance. It will tastefully sweep you through rezn8's portfolio and corporate info, but don't leave yet. There's also a tasty little idea space here that pushes a few conceptual buttons of its own.


Tripod
http://www.tripod.com

Interactive. Informative. Entertaining. Cool. Tripod is alluring eye-candy with a knock-out-bang, solid punch of content to back it up. Tripod has managed to do the impossible: provide a useful yet suspiciously fun Web site. For example, on the subject of work, Tripod offers well-written feature articles about interview techniques, has its own resume writer and reminder minder (which reminds you via e-mail to get your butt to Kinko's), recommends sources for career related news, and links you out to additional online resources. It's 100 percent comprehensive coverage. Tripod also explores politics and leisure, and has a slew of spicy interactive surveys and opinion polls. Don't miss this.


VDorm
http://www.taponline.com/tap/voyeur/vdorm/

O.K., twenty-nothings, we live in the "real world" now. Gotta be real, feel real, look real, and you can bet the media is going to play that image to the hilt. Hence, the rampant attack of online soaps and "real"documentaries on the Web. And while the likes of The Spot (http://www.thespot.com/) and The East Village (http://www.theeastvillage.com/) want to be at the top of this list, we're here to say, VDorm is better. Vdorm is about college students in college dorms, doing college things. The difference - Vdorm uses CuSee-Me, a freeware live video application, to bring these real people to our monitors in REAL time. And if anything is real to college students, it's Web sites that make use of free software capable of running on slower, older machines. VDorm takes an innovative turn by offering a high-quality site, accessible for a broader audience. Three cheers.


WaxWeb
http://bug.village.virginia.edu

Is it a plane? A train? No, it's WaxWeb - super-site game, film, interactive goop at its finest. WaxWeb breaks rules and invents new ones. In short, it's the first feature film online. Unlike a film for which you pay $7.50 to admire in your local theater, WaxWeb is a multi-user film, in which viewers interact with the film and other viewers, with extra bonus goodies like VRML, QuicktimeVR, and animation. It's a cross-platform, networked-based hypermedia extravaganza! The only true way to understand this site is to go there (NOW), register, and throw yourself into the thick of it.


Word
http://www.word.com

Word is innovative in two very distinct ways. First, it sports outstanding design and layout - clever icons, tasteful colors, animation, and some nice typography tricks. Second, Word is a phenomenal I-net stop for content. It's a huge, never-ending mass of stories, essays, and images traversing everything under the proverbial sun - careers, technology, sex, gender, fashion, travel, and curious vices. Word has mastered the art of creative design, challenged the role of digital content, and conquered many of the quirks and quibbles of HTML to create an amazing e-zine that has already shaped the definition of online publishing.


Zippy
http://www.ua.com/zippy.html

Ingenious. Zippy is small - very, very small. It does one thing and one thing only - it hacks the Web. At the Zippy Web site, part of Universal Access, Inc., you type in an URL and Zippy goes out, runs the selected Web site through a filter, and the results are incredibly amusing - Zippy changes hyperlinks and inserts extra words ("it's all just part of my existential angst" or "let's go shopping"). Its novelty may wear off quickly for some, but that's not to discount the fact that this is an extremely clever use of the Web. And you needn't worry; none of the hacks are actually permanent: Zippy only filters what you are viewing, the original sites remain untouched. Bravo!

Please also visit:
Crash Site (http://www.crashsite.com/Crash/)
High Speed Industrial (http://www.best.com/~humans/hsi/ (shockwave)
Levi's (http://www.levi.com/menu)
Realms (http://artnetweb.com/artnetweb/projects/realms/realmstitle.html)
Sci-Fi Channel (http://www.scifi.com)
Space Pirate (http://www2.csn.net/~rosenz/pirate.html)
The Tele-Garden (http://cwis.usc.edu/dept/garden/)
Virtual Antarctica (http://www.terraquest.com/)