After a tough few days, there’s nothing I enjoy more than flicking through the online pages of Google Labs to see what new gadgets, widgets, services and gizmos the clever folk at Google are currently playing around with. It’s almost as cathartic as reading WIRED magazine…
Today in Google Labs, I discovered Art Project powered by Google – a new venture which enables you to explore museums from around the world, discover and view hundreds of artworks at incredible zoom levels, and even create and share your own collection of masterpieces.
 

Google’s …

I’ve been a long time follower of David Meerman Scott, author of the brilliant The New Rules of Marketing and PR which I still remember reading for the first time a few years ago and the impact it has made on my outlook to the industry in which I work. Six months on the BusinessWeek bestseller list and published in 26 languages from Bulgarian to Vietnamese, New Rules, now in its second edition, is a modern business classic.
There have been a few new books written by the author since but for a real …

I have to admit that I had never heard of Airbnb until the infographic below was posted on PSFK yesterday. I felt compelled to click on the image and discovered the amazing growth that this community marketplace for unique spaces has experienced since its launch in August 2008.

Airbnb connects people who have space to spare with those who are looking for a place to stay. Guests can build real connections with their hosts, gain access to distinctive spaces, and immerse themselves in the culture of their destinations.
A couple of years …

An informational motion graphics piece by Alex Trimpe looking at how the world’s obsession with Facebook is growing day by day.
To view the video on Alex’s Vimeo channel click here.

The World Is Obsessed With Facebook from Alex Trimpe on Vimeo.
alextrimpe.com

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I’ve just discovered tailcast.com – a new website that encourages amateur and professional creatives to join the personalised print-on-demand product market through submission and commission based sales. A neat concept that gets more interesting the more you look into it.
Just today, a colleague of mine was talking about her husband’s sideline in T-shirt design and it struck me that by earning 20% commission on all sales that feature a design that you have come up with could turn into a nice little earner.
The website also allows customers to break free …

The Internet has been nominated for the 2010 Nobel Peace Prize in recognition of its positive impact on humanity:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XaxD7R4QwC8&feature=player_embedded
We have finally realised that the Internet is much more than a network of computers.
It is an endless web of people. Men and women from every corner of the globe are connecting to one another, thanks to the biggest social interface ever known to humanity.
Digital culture has laid the foundations for a new kind of society.
And this society is advancing dialogue, debate and consensus through communication.
Because democracy has always flourished where …

How long could you go without a computer? Three Carleton College students take on the challenge of giving up their computers to see how their academic, social, and work lives are affected. No Google. No Facebook. No e-mail.  How will they get their work done? Will they cheat? Who will survive the longest? This documentary follows students Andrew, Caitlin, and Chel as they go through “digital detox” and learn to interact with themselves and with others in ways we have largely forgotten.
“Consistently funny, philosophical… casually ingenious!” -Rob Nelson, Film Critic
“A …

We all deserve a bit / lot of happiness in our lives and Coca-Cola would agree with that sentiment.
Back in January I featured Coke’s Happiness Machine on this blog – a really nice video concept which made it’s way around the web from the US.
Well, the machine has now arrived in London and found it’s way on YouTube today. So far, the clip has racked up just under 3,700 views* – a modest amount compared to the million views that the original video received in it’s first week. However, whilst the impact of the …

Just wanted to share this gem of a story with you all by the genius that was Douglas Adams (author of the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy):
This actually did happen to a real person, and the real person was me. I had gone to catch a train. This was April 1976, in Cambridge, U.K. I was a bit early for the train. I’d gotten the time of the train wrong.
I went to get myself a newspaper to do the crossword, and a cup of coffee and a packet of cookies. …

Ethan Zuckerman studies how the world (the whole world) uses new media to share information and moods across cultures, languages and platforms. His TED talk earlier this summer focuses on how our growing reliance on the localised web as a news source means that we are becoming more and more isolated from the plight of our fellow net-zens in other global regions:
Sure, the web connects the globe, but most of us end up hearing mainly from people just like ourselves. Blogger and technologist Ethan Zuckerman wants to help share the …