Do not miss this amazing (but fake) Web aggregator

One of the coolest Web sites I've seen recently is not from Google, or Microsoft -- or some Web 2.0 start-up in the valley. And, it's not technically even a real Web site. Instead, it's mostly an ad for the Sprint mobile broadband card. I've never seen an "ad" that was so compelling. (via Boing Boing)

First and foremost, the Sprint Now site uses real-time data to show you real statistics using a fake Web aggregator. It's fake in that you can't move the widgets, or customize them. Yet, it's a proof-of-concept that sites like Newsvine, iGoogle, and PageFlakes could and should model.

Most of the stats are just really cool: the number of cars being made versus bikes, the current number of flights, top searches on Google, money spent, cases of malaria in the world, energy usage. There's also a few other widgets -- the one I like best will play some top indie bands like The Dodos. You can pick your song and album, and leave the mouse over the CD cover to play it. If you move your mouse or click on a different browser tab, the song pauses. You can do the same with YouTube videos, playing whichever vid is popular right now. (The word now is used annoyingly at the site, trying to sell you the broadband card -- with a creepy android voiceover that reminds you that the last second has now expired and other painful notices.) There's also a White House cam, a way to see your webcam feed, a tiny game of pong. I just love the interface -- it is clean, subdued, highly usable.

There's also a few RSS feeds at the site, but they are static -- you can't change them at all. Yet, they work -- there's one for gadgets, news of the day, sports. It's a great dashboard that shows you a vivid glimpse of the current day.

There's a mini version you can use in iGoogle, FaceBook (example), MySpace, as an embedded HTML file, and to save on your desktop as a Vista gadget or as a Yahoo widget. The Vista widget didn't work for me and crashed Firefox when I installed it. (Ever notice how easy it is to forgive a crash or software that doesn't work right when it is pushing a boundary? We so easily forgives pre-betas.) Even if it worked, the widget is a truncated version and is not nearly as cool, but you can refresh it to see the various panels, such as a pong game or number of sticky notes being made.

Sprint put a lot of effort into an ad that is not an actual product, and might not stay around for long. I don't see any long term benefits once you check it out the first time. It has no registration that I can see. But, as a proof of aggregation on the Net, it is a shining, well-designed example.