A celebration of small

The mother of all computer games in 4958 bytes

What must be the smallest pornographic website in the world has been declared the Super Grand Prize winner of a competition to make a working webpage no bigger than five kilobytes in size.

The PixxxelChix webpage beat off strong competition from over 1,000 other entries to the contest that celebrates internet thrift.

Now in its second year, the contest forces designers to make functioning webpages that use up less space than many of the images on the BBC News Online website.

Entries this year included animated life stories, 3D model generators, interactive dolphins, classic computer games and poetry generators.

Thinking about it

The 5k Contest was the brainchild of web designer Stewart Butterfield, who started it to make people really think about the tricks and techniques they used to make webpages interesting.

Too often, web designers ignore the fact that many net users have very slow connections. All too frequently, they make pages that, although they look great, take far too long to download.

"Since the space we have to explore is so small, we have to look harder, get more creative; and that's what makes it all interesting," explains Mr Butterfield on the 5k website.

Last year, the competition generated huge publicity, which meant this year there were 1,200 entries to be judged. These were split into two categories: those created using just the pure HTML language of the web, and those that used other technologies that require a browser to possess plug-ins or add-ons for such programs as Macromedia's Flash animation software.

Small reward

Entries could be submitted until 8 April. After that date, visitors to the 5k website got the chance to play with and rate the pages according to size, aesthetic appeal, function, and overall concept.

The most popular creations were then sent to the panel of judges who picked the winners of the several categories. The judges included Rob Malda, aka CmdrTaco, the creator and editor of the popular Slashdot website.

After some deliberation, the PixxxelChix webpage was declared Super Grand Prize winner and was also rated the overall winner, plus the most original site in the non-HTML entries.

The overall winner in the HTML category was the Book of Five Rings webpage, which distilled the philosophy of 17th Century swordsman Miyamoto Musashi into a page a mere 2,334 bytes in size.

Other entries that won categories included a life story told in 5k, a minimal disco and a random poetry site. The prizes awarded to winners were small in line with the ethic of the competition. The Super Grand Prize winner got just $50 (£35).

"They do it for the honour," said Mr Butterfield.