(As an aside, does anyone know which PR it was who originally came up with that ‘most depressing day of the year’ crap? It’s been going on for years now, and each time I see it mentioned I imagine some jaded Associate Director boring their staff with the tale of how it was their great idea back when they were a JAE, and then slowly weeping into their BLOODY CUPCAKES about the likely fact that it will be their only legacy on this earth).

So as we gird our loins to take on February and the inevitable torrent of rubbish that we are fed by the media and brands across the world in celebration of the festival of lonely inadequacy that is the Hallmark Holiday, let me attempt to provide some brief respite in the form of this week’s Web Curios, which I can assure you will contain no references to the forthcoming saccharine-fest whatsoever. Aside from perhaps this one.

It feels like this sometimes, doesn't it? (Image copyright Melissa Cooke

Things About Things About The Internet:

• First off, read this. IT IS ALL TRUE. Are you a brand? Do you work for one? Are you on social media? HAVE YOU EVER BOTHERED TO ASK WHY OR WHAT FOR?
• The Facebook Section
  • So Facebook have now officially launched the Open Graph stuff to all developers. Now we will all be able to watch as our ‘friends’‘cook’, ‘plan a trip’, and, inevitably, overshare about all sorts of insignificant aspects of their lives. LUCKY US! THANKS FACEBOOK. Obviously what this actually means is that brands will start scrambling over themselves to try and find ways to make themselves and their products relevant to our lives and lifestyles – effectively companies will be competing to ‘own’ verbs within Facebook, much as Facebook now ‘owns’ the concept of Liking something online.
  • Autotrader gets in early: See, by way of a domestic example, the manner in which the Autotrader app works – allowing people browsing cars on the site to mark them as ones that they ‘want’ – information which will pop up in their Timeline with a link to the Autotrader Page. And, er, then people will buy more cars from them. They hope.
  • App Privacy Settings Change: All this stuff about brands wanting to be PART OF CONSUMERS’ LIVES (*vomits*) is increasingly significant, because as of this week it’s even harder to spam people’s timelines with activity from your branded Facebook app. All apps will now need to give people the opportunity to opt out of aut0-alerts to their friends, meaning that with a bit of luck you will never again need to know that the weird girl you sat next to in Chemistry (you know, the one who smelled faintly of milk) has just installed the Ann Summers’ FB app.
  • Spotify/Ticketmaster: My favourite clever thing of the week (in a workish context at least) is this app from Ticketmaster that lets you not only buy tickets from within FB, but suggests forthcoming gigs based on what you are listening to on Spotify. This is clever – and the potential for this sort of datasharing is huge. Doubtless it will just be used to do stupid crap like recommend crisp flavours based on the books your profile says you like, but I live in hope.
  • Oh, and Facebook continues its inexorable march towards total world domination
• The Google+ Section (because, you know, IT MAY WELL TAKE OFF YOU KNOW):
  • Record Video Directly into G+: You can now record and share videos from your webcam directly to people on Google+ without putting them on Youtube first. Which, if you think about it, is actually quite a cool thing for brands with access to celebrities, ambassadors, talent, etc – you can give your fans on G+ PROPER exclusive content that they couldn’t get if they weren’t on the network. Which is a) a nice reward and b) a decent way of persuading people to follow you on the platform.
  • Not Google+, but actually it sort of is because Google+ is Google is the internet, effectively. So as of this week it was announced that Google will share stuff that it knows about you across all its services – and that there is nothing you can do about it. The machine is watching you. And people whose job it is to sell stuff will pay the machine A LOT OF MONEY to know what it sees and tailor the snake-tongued lies accordingly. So that’s nice. In fact, this has just popped into my feed – a load of people in advertising talking about how it is in fact A GOOD THING! I don’t know about you, but I’m inclined to believe them implicitly, for it’s a truth of the world that the advertising, marketing and PR industries have nothing at their core but a deep and abiding desire to improve the lot of man.
• The Twitter Section:
  • The McDonald’s Thing: Not worth dwelling on too much, as it was a classic case of the internet getting excited about something for 24h and then moving on, but this story about McDonald’s is illustrative of how important it is for brands to realise that NOT EVERYONE LOVES THEM, and not everyone will behave in the manner in which they wish when presented with a hashtag that they can ‘comedically’ abuse
  • Ah, Censorship: It was inevitable really, but this still makes me sad. Earlier today Twitter announced that it would limit content’s visibility geographically based on ‘local cultural sensitivities’. Watch controversies about suppression of trending topics, etc, take centre stage again over the next 12 months. IT’S THE END OF INNOCENCE.
• A General Stupid Thing That Annoyed Me: So this tweet from technology INFLUENCER and general social media bore Robert Scoble riled me this week. He’s at Davos, and maintained that the world’s richest and most influential are ‘behind’ on social media. Mate, THESE ARE THE PEOPLE WHO RUN THE WORLD (if you discount the Masons, the Illuminati, the Bilderberg lot and the lizards). Maybe, just maybe, that statistic proves that social bloody media isn’t that important to them. Maybe. Grr.

That doesn't look right (Image copyright Michael Burton)

More Internetty Stuff, But Generally Less Serious

• This has been a good week for well-designed single-page websites. Here are some nice examples:
  • The Evolution of Google
  • The Dangers of Hydraulic Fracking (more interesting than it sounds, I promise, and actually a pretty important issue)
  • Responsible Paper Purchasing for WWF
  • That website that shows the mind-buggering quantity of video uploaded to YouTube every hour
• It’s also been a good week for video-based websites. LOOK:
  • This one, for IKEA in Russia, is just very slick – as almost everything IKEA does digitally is. High production values, nice interface, and a generally feelgood vibe about the whole thing. Are Billy bookcases still called Billy in Russia?
  • This one, for a chair manufacturer I have never heard of, is I think my favourite thing of the week. Largely due to the conceit of brainwave-influenced art – it’s almost a waste that it’s used on domestic upholstery. Oh, and Lorenzo is ADORABLE. Do click.
• The Best ‘Your Face HERE’-style website I’ve seen in months. It’s a music video for a Japanese band, and it takes a while to load, but I really do recommend giving it a go. Clever.
• Timehop: What were you doing a year ago? Presuming that you were, like today, wasting your time reading stuff on the internet, pishing around on Facebook and Tweeting your brains, Timehop will let you go back and see exactly how you were spending your day. Interesting if frivolous idea – and something that will doubtless be exploited by a branded app on the Facebook Timeline VERY SOON (an aside – 1 year ago today I was talking to people about Kenneth Tong – remember him? No? Good).
• A Nice Use Of QR Codes: And that’s not something you will hear me say (or read me write, more accurately) very often. This one is cute, though, even though it was probably still only used by about 18 people. As a counterbalance, this is a VERY STUPID use of QR codes.
• The best 404 page ever. Even if it is in Flash, which pedants on Twitter pointed out to me is a BAD IDEA.
• A very clever little iPad ad for Audi
• Mattel are doing a lot of good work in digital / social at the moment, the latest example being this website for Barbie which re-imagines the ICONIC BLONDE BOMBSHELL (with balance issues) as a series of classic artworks.
• Think you know the internet? Think you know memes? Bet you can’t get all 20 of these. If you can, you win a poster (and my sympathy, frankly)

It won't hurt a bit. (Image copyright Maskull Lasserre)

Other Stuff I Have Found Interesting That You Might Too:

• The Biodiversity Project: Not only a collection of beautiful photos, but a chance to buy prints of them AND donate money to fund the future documentation of endangered species. They’re cheap, too.
• One Question Interviews: These do exactly what you’d expect, but there’s something illuminating about them (I think)
• A History of Pitchfork: VERY long, but if you’re interested in music journalism and in fact the music industry as a whole, this is a great read.
• In fact, while we’re doing ‘long’:
  • On ‘negative’ campaigning in US politics (worth reading as it has interesting things to say about the theory and practice of communications overall)
  • On Apple, manufacturing and assorted related issues (basically why the West is banjaxed)
  • On the concept of The Passion Trap, and why we really don’t like Mondays
  • On the ’salaried bourgeousie’, and a perspective on the makeup of the Occupy movement
  • On Muay Thai boxing, Thailand, travel and running away
• Right, enough LONG stuff. Have a FRIVOLOUS FRIDAY GAME
• The drawings of a middle-class child – in this case, Middle-Class Jamie
• Animals in hats. Look, it’s FRIDAY. This is what the internet demands on Fridays.
• Lists of Note. Like Letters of Note. But lists.
• The music of trees. A beautiful art project, I think.
• And finally, I am BAFFLED as to why this campaign hasn’t got more attention. SLIDES ON THE TUBE!

Bye! (Image Copyright Joey Bates)

VIDEOS! There were LOADS that I wanted to include this week, including this one, this one and this one. Below are the ones that made the cut (ha – like there’s some sort of stringent editorial policy going on here):

1) We’ll kick off with a proper labour of love – 6 months in the making by arty design-y video-y people Oh Yeah Wow, this video for ‘Rippled’ by All India Radio is all kinds of awesome. Enjoy:

2) Simon Spurrier wrote a book. It was ACCLAIMED. But because he’s not a famous, noone bought it. So he made this video to try and persuade people to buy the paperback. I challenge you not to want to shoehorn at least one of these phrases into conversation today:

3) I’d never heard of The Naked and Famous before, which sort of makes a nonsense of their name. Nonetheless, I quite like this song, and the video’s a nice example of arty slowmo oddity. It’s called No Way:

4) This is a video of a lego man being sent into space. No more, no less. There is, though, something just incredibly poignant about the unshakable smile and expression of benign optimism on his face, as we watch knowing HE WILL NEVER MAKE IT HOME. I’m getting all lip-quivery just thinking about it:

5) I am going to lift this direct from the video description as frankly it says it all. “Visualization of the 1st violin of the 2nd symphony, 4th movement by Ferdinand Ries in the shape of a rollercoaster” – gorgeous, and you will wish it lasted longer than it does:

6) This is A.Chal. Turn it RIGHT UP. There’s something pleasingly disturbing about this track – Roses On Your Silhouette:

7) Don’t know what the exact background to this is – the video is by Alexandre “Osmoze” Brakha, but doesn’t seem to have any connection to the song which is the D.L.I.D remix of Phoenix’s “1901″. Either way, I love this song and the video too:

This borrows a lot from early Eminem, and from hiphop fad genre horrorcore (of which this is my favourite example, should you care), but is no worse for it. Tech N9ne ft. B.o.B & Hopsin – Am I A Psycho?

9) Last but by no means least, IT’S POPEYE!!!! And Wilco, but, y’know, POPEYE!!! Bye x

And look! We have a new name here at H&K sorry, H+K towers. Truly, shiny 2012 is unrecognisable from dull, turgid old 2011. Let’s be honest – these are dark days, not helped by being greeted every morning with the radio telling us exactly how banjaxed everything is and will continue to be for the rest of the foreseeble future, and by having to observe the tawdry spectacle of what is already shaping up to be one of the filthiest political campaigns in living memory over in the US. And all that whilst having to try and keep that resolution you made in the hazy state of optimism with which you greeted the 1st of January. With that in mind, let me take you by the hand and lead you through the streets of London some bits of the internet. It probably won’t make you feel better – in fact, there’s a reasonable argument to be made for a lot of this stuff making you feel a little bit worse, soul-wise – but, you know, tough. Suck it up. There’s another 11 months of this before you get to spend a fortnight drunk in your pants again whilst eating cheap confectionery, so deal with it.

Before I start with the links and stuff, though, I suppose that as someone who makes a living from pretending to know things about communications and the internet and stuff I ought to offer some thoughts on what this EXCITING NEW YEAR will bring in terms of digitally social media-y stuff. Except, you know, everyone did this at the end of last year or last week. Look, if you want predictions then Google is your friend – or go and read a roundup of last year and then extrapolate your own.  That said, in an attempt to justify my salary, you can have these two:

• People will start to realise that the emperor is naked: I sincerely hope that this is true, at the very least. I think that by the end of 2012, there will be a lot of brands looking back at the last 12-24 months and asking “Erm, so that money that we poured into social…why did we do that again? And why is it a good thing that 30,000 people like us on Facebook?”. This isn’t to say that all this stuff is pointless, just that if brands – and, as an extension, their agencies – continue to fail to demonstrate the real business benefits of using social media then they should expect tough questions from the person holding the purse strings. If you, your agency or your colleagues don’t ask “Yes, but why?” when some idiot wangs on about why you should plough £50k into a Pinterest campaign, then take a long, hard look at yourselves.
• Brands as Patrons: Yes, ok, so this is less a prediction than an observation. Still. I have had long conversations in the pub with my friend Adam about this, and come to the conclusion that, for a lot of smaller artists, taking the corporate shilling in some way is the only manner for them to be able to continue to make a living from their work. Smart brands will this year start to exploit this, particularly as the competition for eyeballs – and thus, for content – becomes ever more fierce. Grolsch are paying for a FILM, for Christ’s sake – this is only the tip of the iceberg.
• That’s enough semi-original thinking; now on with the shameless repurposing of other people’s material

From a series called 'Placebo' by Marco Vernaschi

Stuff that is about my job and that most people probably don’t read:

• Google and related matters: So this week’s BIG STORY in the world of the internets was Google’s announcement of ‘Search, plus Your World‘ (Google – great at making stuff, not so great at nomenclature). What this means is that Google search will, in the near future, begin to prioritise content based upon your Google profile; that is, your ‘friends’ on Google+, your browsing history, etc etc etc. Thus, effectively, reinforcing the already existing filter bubble effect (which, you may recall, I have railed against previously). Of course, Google likes this because it automatically makes it more important for brands (and, to an extent, people) to be on Google+ in order to compete in search; lots of other people don’t like it and have been quite vocal about why (you can read a more balanced range of opinions here). You will be able to turn if off – and, frankly, anyone with a shred of intellectual curiosity ought to. The concept of an internet that shrinks to fit your habits, tastes and interests is a horrid one and should be avoided at all costs.
• Might as well talk about Google+ here too: this week, Cadbury’s launched a new chocolate bar on Google+ (which is why noone knows about it ahahahazzzzzzzzzzzzzzz); big brands are starting to take it seriously (although, let’s be honest, the only reason Cadbury’s actually did this is so that they could shout “FIRST!” and then stumble under the weight of all the social media evangelists slapping them on the back for their courage and daring. It’s worth taking a look at that page and seeing how many people from the UK there are commenting. Not many, fyi). This short piece about why G+ is ‘here to stay’ is also worth a quick read, as is this wonderfully self-important (but technically interesting) rant about how it is RUINING THE INTERNET from last week. Oh, and they also recently announced that the ‘Hangouts’ feature is getting a facelift – which, if you have any sort of imagination, is the really interesting link in this segment. What I think Google+ could be, if used creatively, is an excellent deep communications tool; not used like Facebook for mass-market, broad brush stuff, but for much more interesting interactions between companies and individuals, artists and their public, etc. I reckon Ben Folds or someone similar will make a collaborative album using Google+ by the end of the year (LOOK ANOTHER PREDICTION!!!)
• Oh, and apparently Facebook Timeline for brands will be rolled out in the middle of next month.
• Exciting, eh? Oh.

Photo by Mark B Anstendig. Nice, isn't it?

Other stuff loosely pertaining to the industry in which I work:

• Clever Kleenex Facebook Thing: How much you like this depends largely on how you feel about brands effectively stalking you on social networks (remember, kids, you can do it too!). Kleenex in Israel found people who were complaining of having colds online, and sent them personalised tissue-based gift packs. Cue loads of people going “OMG THE BRAND LOVES ME!!!!”, posting pictures of said gift packs online, and doing the PR/marketing drones’ job for them. What I struggle to understand, though, is how Kleenex got these people’s addresses – apparently they ‘asked their friends’; I for one would have harsh words for someone who gave my address to the first snotrag-shilling conglomerate that asked for it.
• Clever Airline Facebook Thingy: Simple-but-nice – airline creates app that allows Facebook users to get cheap fares to visit their Facebook friends overseas. This is clever because it’s simple – you can imagine yourself being on Facebook, talking to (stalking) someone and thinking ‘Hm, wonder how much it would cost to turn up unannounced on their doorstep holding a gun to my head demanding marriage surprise them with a visit?’
• Genuinely unsettling Facebook app idea: This week’s prize for ‘theoretical Facebook app most likely to be cited in courtrooms’ goes to…
• Waterstone(‘)s: Whoever is behind this Twitter feed for Waterstone‘s Oxford St is my new anonymous crush (LUCKY YOU, TWITTER PERSON). This picture, posted in the wake of APOSTROPHEGATE, showcases why.
• Zombies RUN: Gamification is an early contender for most irritatingly over(and mis-)used term of the year. Nonetheless, this excellent app by the very clever people at Six To Start is a nice example of that very thing, and might well be useful if you have made some sort of ridiculous promise to yourself about doing exercise in January.
• I am sure that the person who wrote this is lovely, and that they will go on to have a happy, fulfilling life and career filled with love, and happiness and all the things they like best in the world. This blog post, though, is the reason why everyone makes fun of the PR industry and made me feel genuinely embarrassed about what I do for a living. So thanks.

Self portrait by Milan Nenezic

Other Stuff I Found & Liked Recently:

• The Ballad of Horse_ebooks: Or, the evolution of a meme. You may or may not be aware of the surreal genius that is the @horse_ebooks twitter feed; this is an interesting dissection of its popularity and a nice illustration of how memes evolve.
• Puppy Shelter – The Game: See if you can get all the puppies adopted! This isn’t from an animal welfare charity, but it feels like it ought to be.
• Megaman: Somewhat cheerier than the puppies, this is the whole of classic 80s NES game Megaman, in your browser. Go on, it’s Friday afternoon after all. Your boss won’t mind. Maybe you ARE the boss. Play it.
• Oh, and while we’re doing games you can also play 2011’s app sensation Cut The Rope online, should you so desire
• The Shortest Fiction: This week’s cute literary project comes in the shape of The Shortest Fiction, which prompts people with a picture to write a short short story (300 words or less). There’s some lovely stuff on there.
• Sensory Maps: My friend Luke and I once thought about doing this for the underground, but…er…didn’t. Interesting art project mapping Edinburgh in sensory fashion. Someone do London, please. Thanks.
• Shirtify: Awesome idea. Subscribe, to the service, listen to music by bands you love, get sent band tshirts, the bands get paid. Simple, and beautifully executed.
• Twitter and the Law: Philippa Thomas is a BBC reporter who covered the recent Stephen Lawrence murder trial. Her blog about her thoughts on how Twitter was used to report it makes interesting reading, if you’re interested in that sort of thing.
• Fallen Disney Princesses: I think I ruined a few people’s childhoods with this yesterday afternoon. In the spirit of sharing, here it is again! Scroll right for the pictures.
• Raise Money for a Belle & Sebastian Film: Well, sort of Belle & Sebastian. God Help The Girl was Stuart Murdoch’s side project from a few year’s back; a concept album of sorts, that he had always said he wanted to turn into a musical. He’s now turned to Kickstarter to try and raise funds for it to be turned into a film. Go on, contribute, it’ll be good.
• Cliff Richard Dying Inside: Not much else to say, really.

Now, moving pictures. Enjoy them, and have pleasing weekends one and all.

1) Web Curios’ semi-regular commitment to bringing you the best in student animation continues with this STELLAR short by students from the Ecole Supérieure des Métiers Artistiques. It is called Electroshock and it is really rather good (and, you know, a bit French):

2) More animation, this time as the video for VERSIS ✖ DIBIA$E’s song “Fly Me To The Moon”, which is rather good I think:

3) Having mentioned Adam up there, I am now going to gently plug his latest single. It’s called Video Highway, it is from last year’s album “The Life Equation”, and it’s my personal favourite. Oh, you can see the first in what is a trilogy of videos here – that one’s rather good as well:

4) I know very little about this next one, other than I think it’s by a guy called Marko Slavnic. Table 7 is a nice piece of short filmmaking – 4 minutes that will make your life moderately better, I promise:

5) It’s a FACT OF MODERN LIFE that the youth of today (and not just the youth, in fact) have few qualms about sharing pictures of their naked selves with relative strangers (that sentence, I realise, makes me sound like Methuselah. No matter). If you need reminding how little of a good idea that can sometimes be, you can either check out the frankly jaw-droppingly unkind Is Anyone Up? (BUT NOT AT WORK, SERIOUSLY, YOU WILL GET THE SACK), or you can listen to this song by Ronnie Butler Jr – The Photographs of your Junk Will be Publicised

6) ‘Rome’ by Dangermouse and Daniele Luppi is a lovely album (and a nice website) and well worth a listen. This is the video for the song ‘Two Against One’:

7) You may remember They Might Be Giants from their one UK chart hit ‘Birdhouse in your Soul’ (which, if you happen to click that link, will be floating around in your head ALL DAY). They ought to be more famous then they are, I think. This video for their song “When Will You Die?” features a giant cardboard monster truck, which can only be a positive thing:

By far and away the most hipsterish thing on the blog this week, but it is a lovely song. July, by Youth Lagoon:

9) Finally a track from last year that I only discovered this week. Hand On Your Gun by Lowkey:

My favourite event of the past month has been ageing whoremonger Silvio Berlusconi departing from office; what was yours? Leaving aside international events of major significance, and ignoring the ever-more-parlous state of world affairs, it’s been a pretty good few weeks: I went to Berlin and rode one of these; I went to an unexpected festival in Hay (I imagine the organisers expected it; I was less prepared) where I fell a little bit in love with this man’s music; and I watched this film which I highly recommend. Oh, and I decided that I would ignore the vile, PR-created orgy of consumption that is ‘Black Friday’ in favour of something slightly different which I recommend you try out too.

Or, you know, go out and spend your hard-earned coin on whatever pretty thing will make you happiest for 30 seconds. It’s good for the economy, probably.

Photo by Rob Gale, graffiti by anonymous social commentator.

The Bits About Work

• Some New Facebook Stuff: So I don’t think this is that interesting, but it comes under the heading of ’stuff people like me need to be seen to know about so we can continue to con people out of cash’. Facebook have extended and deepened their analytics function for page owners, giving you data on who looks at what, when, and for how long, on your page. Beautifully it also includes statistics on ‘virality’, which is my favourite made-up, nonsensical metric since…
• Klout (is utter, utter rubbish): I seem to recall I may have had a bit of a rant about influencer analysis before; it’s good to see that I was right. Read the article linked to above and understand that machines cannot algorithmically determine an individual’s sphere of (or indeed degree of) influence at all. The same, by the way, applies to sentiment – if anyone reading this is a client whose agency gives them pretty graphs purporting to show what people ‘feel’ about them, their brand or their products on the internet, here’s a piece of free consultancy: THEY ARE LYING TO YOU. IT IS ALL MADE UP. On the subject of which, this post (and, more accurately, thrown-together art(ish) project) by @jaggeree is one of the best things I’ve read all week – take a moment to read it, if you’re interested in this sort of thing.
• PR IS HAVING AN IDENTITY CRISIS!: I don’t really know what to say about this, other than that if an industry struggles to come up with a coherent explanation of what it is and what it is for, it’s perhaps in a bit of trouble. The Public Relations Society of America is currently engaged in trying to crowdsource a new definition for PR. Web Curios IN NO WAY encourages you to troll this mercilessly. No siree.
• The Best Use of Facebook Data I’ve Seen In Ages: Note my massive intellectual inconsistency in linking to this despite earlier having extolled the virtue of Buy Nothing Day. Hypocritical, much? Anyway, this is such a clever use of Facebook API; Etsy scrapes your FB ‘friends’ profiles to find what they have publicly ‘liked’, and then suggests a range of gifts based on their interest profiles. Simple, frictionless, and best of all the application doesn’t autopost or try and spam your friends. Other designers, take note – when something works this well, you don’t need intrusive wall spamming to make people share it.
• Augmented Reality for Perverts: A slightly linkbaity headline, I concede. This is a slightly tawdry but undoubtedly smart AR app for clothing label Moosejaw (no, me neither) which provides a faux-xray view of its catalogue (personally speaking I think this would be cooler if it actually did show an xray view with skeletons and stuff, but that’s because I am OLD, I would imagine).
• Romanian Confectionary Is Awesome At The Internet: Fresh from their plaudit-winning spoof rebrand of their product earlier this year, this is another clever piece of work for Romanian chocolate bar Rom, asking Romanians to work together to help improve the image of their country on the internet – and primarily on Google. Check it out, it’s worth a look.

Needless to say I didn't buy this from the junk shop

A Few More Work-ish Things (that i didn’t want to put up there because I thought that section was getting overlong, not unlike this header really):

• TweepsMap: Leaving aside the nails-on-blackboard horror of the name (I will continue saying this until I’m blue in the face; anyone who uses terms such as ‘tweeps’ or ‘tweeple’ in relation to Twitter is beneath contempt; FACT), this is a moderately useful tool that shows you where all your Twitter followers are from; potentially useful to ascertain whether you are reaching the right influencerszaksjyaslkdyaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaarrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrgh.
• TwitterStatPorn: Because we all know you can never have enough data which, when recontextualised, can be used to prove whatever spurious argument you’re currently trying to peddle.
• Cleverness By IKEA: The latest in a long, long line of things that make me think ‘Oh, I wish I was clever enough to have thought of this myself. But I’m not, so I’ll just tell people about it instead’ is this piece of work from IKEA in Belgium. Watch the (short) video for an explanation – it’s basically a very clever way of running a competition through YouTube videos whilst at the same time compelling people to watch your adverts over and over and over and over and over and over again.
• SkyChalk: So this is basically a bit like Foursquare, but with no app or check-in based friction – a Google Maps-based site that allows anyone to leave notes ‘attached’ to places. I don’t know why, but I could actually imagine using this in a way I could never imagine using 4sq. See what you think.

I really, really like this. Christmas is just around the corner, you know *bats eyelashes*

Additional Assorted Ephemera:

• WENLOCK & MANDEVILLE!!!: Look, I know it’s not very cool to be excited by the Olympics or (moreso) to be giddy with delight at the mascots, but I can’t help it; I love the terror sperm. Also, I think that this website is rather nicely done. AND YOU GET TO DRESS THEM UP!!!
• I don’t so much like this as find it utterly terrifying, but I feel I should share the discomfort. Play with a virtual spider right here.
• Granta Goes Digital: Venerable literary institution Granta produced this lovely website to showcase a Roberto Bolano short story, as part of its recent ‘Horror’ collection. It’s a lovely example of what you might call augmented storytelling (if you were, like me, a crushing ponce); more of this, please.
• Ugly Renaissance Babies: My mum and I often go to exhibitions of Renaissance art when I’m in Italy. She explains all about the painterly craft and socio-historical background to the pictures; I complain that the children all look really, really creepy. This website proves that I am right (and contains a baby that looks a bit like Rob Boella).
• Street View Art Shots: Continuing the artistic theme, this is a collection of beautiful photos captured by Google Street View.
• The Past Was Rubbish At Web Design: This collection of still-live websites from yesteryear contains some eyeball-scouringly poor design decisions. I await the first brand to get massive geek kudos for redoing their website in the style of Geocities next April 1st.
• Interview With Tyler, The Creator: A really interesting interview by Spin; I particularly like the fact that he’s honest about how weird it is to suddenly wake up and be ‘rich’. Worth a read.
• Prison Photography: Nothing more to say about this, really. A very good photoblog collecting photos of the incarcerated by a variety of talented photographers.
• Humans From New York: Photographs taken around NYC, arranged by neighbourhood. Not only are the pictures good, but the categorisation is an interesting touch. Can someone make this for London, arranged by postcode please? Thanks.
• NME Compilations From The 80s: An insane collection of downloadable mixtapes from back in the day when the NME actually mattered.
• Baroque: It’s sort of a game, but also a bit like an executive toy. But with music. Have a play, it’s very soothing.

The child is real, the cigarette is not

VIDEOTIME!

1) First up this week we have a gorgeous piece of stop-motion to accompany an equally pretty (in a good way) song by a band called Hudson. The song’s called ‘Against The Grain’, and it’s lovely:

2) Probably the best pencil-drawn animation since A-Ha’s ‘Take On Me’ video (no, really) – this is by a Korean studio (I think) and is called ‘Keep Drawing’:

3) [Lo Mueso] are a band from Barcelona who make punky-type songs. This is a very, very odd (but also very good) cartoon accompaniment to their song ‘Ça Ça Mirlaquerr’:

4) I’ve featured High 5 Collective’s videos on here before, but make no apologies for doing so again – they are simply making very good work at the moment. This is their recent clip to accompany Theophilus London’s ‘Love Is Real’. Try not wanting to be a teenager again after watching this:

5) If you ever liked Clouddead you might like this; Doinnothing by BLU:

6) It’s winter, and thoughts are turning to warmth and knitwear. Prizes to whoever manages to replicate this woollen madness in real life – can we make it the theme for this year’s Christmas party, please? PLEASE? Oh. Anyway, this is Seventeen Evergreen with ‘The Polarity Song’:

7) You know how I said that video #2 was the best pencil drawn animation since blah blah blah? This one might be better. Pencilhead:

What do you get if you cross Bambi, cut-out papercraft and a dollop of Eastern mysticism? Erm, this, apparently – Revival by Beats Antique:

9) Finally this week, the now-traditional ‘hm, this isn’t quite safe for work’ slot. Except this time I reckon it probably is – you’d have to be a little odd to find this anything other than moderately freakish. Anyway, here’s Sexy Results by Death From Above 1979, which narrowly beat out this little beauty for the coveted ‘last video’ slot:

Ignoring the fact that world is going to hell in the proverbial handcart, though, I’ve actually had rather a lot of fun (because that is obviously the MOST IMPORTANT THING). I’ve seen comedy; I’ve been to an awesome gig;I’ve been to the theatre and seen probably the most harrowing play I’ve ever seen, ever (actually, make that the second-most harrowing - this was probably worse); I’ve eaten some truly tremendous food; and I got to see a truly tremendous rapper live in a tiny venue. So, you know, I’m alright. Are you alright? I’m starting to worry.

Anyway, enough of this. Make yourself a cup of tea, settle down in a suitably confortable chair, and imagine my soothing, dulcet tones reading this out to you (and, if you like, imagine my malcoordinated body acting out every single video too. You pervert). You may want to get some biscuits too; this could take a while.

Image courtesy of Neutron, LLC

Stuff that only people in made-up jobs like mine will conceivably care about:

• A load of information about LinkedIn: I never write about LinkedIn on here. Mainly because I remain unconvinced of its utility for anyone other than recruitment people (and, judging by the quality of approaches many people I know seem to get from recruiters, even they don’t know how to use it properly). Nonetheless, the recent ’status’ feature which they implemented may go some way towards changing that (although there are other services around which take the best bits of the concept of a branded newsfeed and do it in a more directly useful fashion). As an aside, do you think anyone really takes any notice of the ‘recommendations’ feature on there? Is it not just saying ‘I like this person; they like me too and think I am AWESOME!‘? It’s like having references from your mates on your CV.
• Which social networks are most popular, where: So there are various versions of this data around – including the now-ubiquitous social media map of the world by the lovely Vincos – but here’s another dataset based on Google searches per country. We can, of course, quibble for hours as to the validity of that metric as a measurement of popularity – or we can simply say a heartfelt ‘thanks!’ to the kind soul who gathered the data and use it to prove or disprove whatever we like. CHOICES.
• TwitterStuff: On Sunday, there was a red-carpet event for the premiere of an animated film about a boy and his close relationship with both his dog and an ageing sea captain. That’s not germane to this blog, though. What is germane is Paramount’s clever step in buying a promoted tweet around the premiere, and streaming footage from the red carpet live through Twitter. It’s part of a concerted drive by the company to stimulate brands to work with it to use the platform in more creative – and media-friendly – ways (and to get them to pay money for ads, natch), another example of which is the voting tie-up with US X Factor. All of this is being supported by an update of the manner in which the Twitter timeline works, with more media, threaded conversations, etc. In case you care, one of the major reasons as to why these changes are important is that it’s very much in Twitter’s best interests to have people using it through twitter.com – because that way they get more accurate data on who (and how) uses it, which means more information they can give to companies to persuade them to spend vast boatloads of cash on advertising. TRUFACT.
• This is absolutely the cleverest, most useful application of Foursquare I’ve yet seen: although given I don’t drive I still won’t use it.
• Engagement is a dirty word: This week’s ‘brilliant and intelligent piece of writing that I can guarantee 99% of you won’t read because it’s long and you all have the attention span of ritalin-deprived goldfish’ comes from Martin Weigel of W&K Amsterdam. He sets out in a long, methodical blogpost all the reasons why the term ‘engagement’ is meaningless pap that we should stop using. To (very basically) summarise, the crux of his argument is that nobody knows what it means, and that even if they did it’s not a valid measurement of anything. Read it; it will make you better at your job, and it will hopefully mean that I am less likely to have some sort of aneurysm/seizure in a meeting when someone YET AGAIN uses the term in a nonsensical, vapid fashion. Now if someone could do the same for the word ‘viral’ I’d be very grateful; thanks.
• How not to sponsor an industry awards ceremony: tangential, but worth reading – this is how not to behave when you are the sponsors of a media awards ceremony, in this case the games industry’s GMAs.

Hell of a costume, this. Happy Hallowe'en! (no idea who to credit this to - if anyone knows, let me know and I will)

Some stuff that’s probably still sort-of about my job but which other people might also find interesting, maybe:

• The future according to Microsoft: this is a very nice video by the world’s least favourite tech company (I must say, I still don’t totally understand the anti-MS opprobrium, but whatever) all about what the future will look like. The near future, rather than the very distant one. It’s slickly executed, and gave me that slightly weird ’scared-but-excited-but-uncertain’ vibe that all the best near-future futurology should. Anyone who finds the video interesting really should read ‘Super Sad True Love Story’ by Gary Shteyngart, which is one of the best and smartest (and funniest and saddest) books I’ve read this year, which whilst not being about tech per se has some very smart things indeed to say about the logical progression w/r/t the interface between tech and society that we are moving towards. Buy it.
• That skeleton-bloke makeup video: for the three of you who haven’t yet seen it, this is one of the best pieces of branded content I’ve seen in AGES.
• 3d projections on water: Nike and Coke are so horrendously good at making cool stuff for the internet to gawp at. Part of me hates sharing stuff that I know has been explicitly designed and packaged to tick boxes for generic media wankers like me; on the other hand, this is such impressive stuff. Nike launch a new trainer with some spectacular experiential stunts.
• Barack’s Tumblr: Nothing especially new about world leaders signing up to social media sites – eh, Dave? – but the page announcing the launch of an official Obama Tumblr is noteworthy for the little section at the end which waves to the trolls. A sign of a media team who get it, no doubt.
• Slavery Footprint: This is a really slick and well-executed piece of website design; pretty, functional and smooth. More importantly it’s for an excellent cause, raising awareness of the very real human costs of the 21st century consumption/manufacturing ouroboros (yeah, you try out-pretentiousing me any time soon).
• Simply the best print ad I’ve seen all year: and it’s for haemmorhoid cream. Although this one runs it a close second.

No idea at all

Stuff that I quite simply like and that has no obvious connection with my professional life at all:

• So the 99% concept, and the whole ‘occupy’ movement as a whole, are obviously very OF THE NOW. There are some decent photographs of the US occupy movement in this flickr set, but if you’re at all interested in the concept of popular disenfranchisement and the growing ‘us vs them’ feeling formenting amongst large swathes of the world’s population, it’s very much worth reading this lengthy-but-interesting look at quite how strange and wrong the homogenisation of experience inherent in the concept of the 99% is.
• Eugenides, Franzen, Wallace: I’ve got a not inconsiderable posthumous mancrush on David Foster Wallace. This piece from NY Mag looks at the relationships between him, Jonathan Franzen and Jeffrey Eugenides – probably only one for the US literophiles (that is not a word, I know), but fascinating nonetheless.
• Like manga and anime and hiphop? You will ADORE my mate Adam’s latest mixtape, in that case. It is epic.
• A present for your most narcissistic friend(s): I’m not entirely sure that I approve of this gift, but if you have a very vain mate who is also on Twitter then this might be just the thing for them. Along, perhaps, with a few sessions of therapy.
• The best present for small children EVER: Sadly the actual shop website is down at the moment, but the blog I’ve linked to explains the concept – get a kid to draw something, send it to these people, receive bespoke stuffed toy that looks EXACTLY like said kid’s drawing in return. AMAZING, and reminiscent of this but in real life.
• Fifty for Fity (redux): I know I linked to this last time too, but there are some lovely entries that are worth checking out. Design a new £50 note for a chance to win a new £50 note
• How to write romance novels: probably the funniest piece of writing I’ve read all week. Though it also made me consider giving it all up to write Mills & Boon fiction.
• Jewellery made from teeth and hair. Not much more to say, really.
• On Depression: the ever-excellent Hyperbole And A Half blog covers depression; funnier than you’d expect, and will ring true to most people to some extent.
• It’s actually quite sunny in London today, but if you want to recreate the coddled atmosphere of being indoors whilst rain pounds on the windows then this is the website for you. Probably the greatest aid to sleep (and, potentially, incontinence) ever – Pianos and Rain.
• It’s 10 years since Rockstar Games (a former client of mine, fact-fans) changed the world of videogames forever by releasing Grand Theft Auto 3 – probably the only game in the world your gran has heard of  (unless this is your gran, of course). Amazingly, civilisation hasn’t collapsed totally in the wake of this amoral festival of violence - take the time to look back in this fascinating interview with Dan Houser, one of the brains behind the series.
• New York City from above. Gorgeous pictures.

The hazards of being made entirely of bread

Videos! Prepare yourselves; there’s some MAGIC in here this week.

1) First up, as a sort of visual palate-cleanser, have this – it’s a branded video, admittedly, but the mouths are HYPNOTIC:

2) I like this next one for several reasons; partly that there’s some very cool parkour-type moves in it, and also because of the obvious love it has for Tony Hawk’s videogame series. Serious question – how do people get good at this stuff without dying in the process?

3) Every year the Sun et al go mental trying to find Britain’s gaudiest house. In advance of that, this year’s lightshow-to-beat comes in the shape of this son et lumiere-Hallowe’en extravaganza. Amazing:

4) My favourite video of the week, this is technically brilliant, and cute, and quirky, and I even like the song (which admittedly has massive shades of The Real Tuesday Weld). Evelyn Evelyn, with “Have you seen my sister Evelyn?”:

5) This, on the other hand, is significantly less cute, but in it’s own way is no less impressive. Khat, with Ring of Fire:

6) I can’t really not link to the Duck Sauce ‘Big Bad Wolf’ video, though most of you will probably already have seen it:

7) I’ve featured Genki Sudo before, but their new video is another masterpiece of choreography. Office monkeys of London – why not spend the afternoon making your own versions? Go on.

I know my mum reads this sometimes – Mum, I want this for Christmas, please. IT’S A ROBOT RIDING A BIKE!!!:

9) Last up this week is something you should only watch if you’re feeling strong. It’s an amazing piece of animation, but it’s also quite disturbing and features what are often euphemistically referred to as ADULT THEMES. And it goes quite mental at one point, and doesn’t really let up. I’ve probably put you all off now, but whatever. Suffice it to say that when I first watched this my jaw literally dropped at about the 1 minute mark, and didn’t close again til it was well finished. This is a song called ‘Fantasy’, by Dye – ENJOY!:

BUT that was then and this is now; I have returned to a world in which the internet spends all its time railing against the evil of corporations and then…er…goes incontinent with grief over the passing of the head of one of the world’s largest corporations; in which Silvio manages to somehow become even more ridiculous and offensive;  and a world in which somehow one of the members of 1980s pop combo Hue & Cry has become a consultant on games, play and ludic theory. We live in interesting times. Here are some totally insignificant bits of online ephemera to help distract you from what appears to be the total meltdown of civilisation which is going on all around us. Christ, I sound like an old man.

Socially responsible graffiti on a Croatian beach hut

Stuff Vaguely Connected To My Job:

• Facebook Things: Keeping pace with Facebook’s changes is, at the moment, tricky – they’re changing stuff every 5 minutes. This week alone they’ve announced an automatic translation service for Pages, premium ads, new ‘Insights’ metrics for page admins…as well as the much-discussed new ‘Timeline’ view which is currently being held up by legal wrangles (BAD FACEBOOK). I could write a whole load about all this stuff but frankly it’s not that interesting, everything I write would be conjecture (“Brands might be able to take advantage in x, y, and z manner! But they might not! Look at my valuable insight and MARVEL!”) and anyway other people have already written up thoughts. Like this scamp.
• Play, Games & Brands: As alluded to above, I MET ONE OF HUE & CRY THIS WEEK!!!! I know that only about 4 of you will be old enough to know how IMMENSELY SIGNIFICANT that is, but nonetheless. Anyway, so Pat Kane gave a very interesting talk on brands (mis)using the mechanics of play to sell / engage consumers. It’s worth checking out the presentation above and thinking about how you/your clients (mis)understand why people play (ergo why they engage – or don’t). Oh, and while I’m on the subject this is a brilliant (and typically long) piece of writing by Tim Rogers on the monetization and marketing of games, and how game mechanics lock us in with psychology – very clever indeed.
• What I Do For A Living: This presentation, by the occasionally funny people at TwankersUK is both accurate and depressing in equal measure. Recognise yourself in it? Be ashamed (God knows I am).
• Google KNOWS: This is an excellent piece from this week’s London Review of Books, which whilst ostensibly is a look at three recent texts on the search giant is in fact a very good overview of the information Google has, how it uses it, and how that usage is what works to refine the service. It’s informative, I very much recommend it. As an adjunct, this GigaOM post about how Google+ will eventually become a connecting node through which all your personal data is aggregated is also worth a read. IT ALL TIES TOGETHER, DO YOU SEE???

I Have No Mouth And I Must Scream (piece by Choi Zooang)

Stuff Connected With My Job That Even People Who Don’t Do AdverMarketPublicRelationsing Might Find Cool / Interesting:

• Steve Jobs: Not much to add to this, aside from saying that it’s always sad when someone dies and that this interview with him from Playboy in 1985 is fascinating stuff. Oh, and that one of the most fascinating things about Jobs was his breadth of interest; he studied calligraphy, he did acid, and his ethos was informed by all of the experiences he had (of course; God, that was a trite sentence). I think the point I’m trying to make is that being a polymath, and being fascinated by multiple things, is one of the key tenets of creativity and something without which you – and your ideas – will be sterile. Novelist, satirist, polemicist and journalist (and famous former skag-monkey) Will Self is quoted in this interview that he is ‘only interested in being interested’. Everyone should aspire to that, I reckon. But then again what do I know? (rhetorical).
• Zeebox Might Be Massive: I was made aware of this by Matthew Carrozo on Twitter. Details are so far sketchy, but judging by the more detailed description you can find in this article, and judging by its inventor’s pedigree (Anthony Rose did, after all, build iPlayer for the BBC) this could be the first breakthrough ’social TV’ solution. One to watch (pun absolutely not intended).
• Hypertext Fiction (and why it never caught on): Fascinating piece on hypertext fiction (that is, fiction which you can navigate hypertextually – clicking on links within the text to bounce around the narrative – you can see a very good example here, and please do check it out as it’s BRILLIANT). Anyway, the article’s conclusion is effectively that the lack of progress in the medium is a problem of execution rather than one of it being conceptually flawed; I think the right brand could have some real success with a well-executed hypertext project, personally. Penguin, if you’re reading this then come and talk to me.
• A Few Nice Videos of Decent PRy Stuff: First, have this on-site experiential project from crisp brand Lay’s, which will happening in South America soon; next, have this awesome use of post-it notes in another South American campaign, this time for a Sao Paolo Gallery (I think; my Portuguese is a bit rubbish); and finally, a very cool use of projection mapping by…er…literally no idea at all who’s behind this, but check it out - it’s the world’s largest game of Space Invaders.
• TinType Studio in San Francisco: A pop-up drop-in portrait studio in SF. No idea if this is a brand ‘thing’ (I hope not); watch this sort of thing get ripped off by someone very soon offering to create a professionally shot new profile picture for FB, for example. You can have that for free, Canon (or anyone else, frankly).

This is oddly cheering on an October morning (artwork by Ich Bin Kong)

Other Stuff Which Has No Relevance To My Job At All, But Which I Nonetheless Found Stimulating In Some Way:

• We Are The 99%: So following on from the Occupy Wall Street reference at the top of this, this is a blog collecting testimonies by people affected by the economic downturn – the 99% as opposed to the wealthiest 1%. A lot of really interesting, poignant pictures and stories, and a human face to what is an increasingly abstracted issue (it’s hard to think of real people when Gideon’s chatting about Quantitative Easing).
• Animal Costumes: I’m going to be very disappointed if at least one of you isn’t wearing one of these in a month’s time.
• Wedding Ring Coffins: For anyone going through a divorce.
• Balloon Hats, Worldwide: This bloke has, for reasons known only to himself, chosen to go around the world photographing people in balloon hats. Were I not already doing my dream job, that would come a close second.
• Self Portrait Postcards: An art project collating every status update written by artist Rishi Dastidar on Facebook over three years, creating a picture of who he’s been and what he’s done, in real-time. It’s on til 14th October in London – take a look.
• A Collection Of Obsessive Photo Projects: A collection of links to some of the internet’s ‘best’ slightly odd photographic projects, including this one (which I’d never heard of) from WAAAAAAAAAY back in 1999 in which a slightly overweight, creepy-looking bloke documents his attempts to shower with 100 different women in a year. No, really.
• A Guide To What Happens At Puberty: …in the style of Dr Seuss. I think this is awesome, but you may be left with the feeling that your childhood’s been somewhat compromised; your mileage, as ever, may vary.
• 50 For 50: So my mate Dan’s running this, but it’s still a cute idea. Design what you would like the new £50 to look like; the best entry wins one of said new £50 notes. There may even be an exhibition of the entries. Something to do this afternoon, should you be workshy (heaven forfend).
• Photography from INSIDE THE MOUTH: Oh yes.
• Azealia Banks – 212: I wanted to put this in the videos, but it’s been dragged down from YouTube for some reason. No matter – have the mp3 instead. This is a brilliant song, but lyrically a little bit filthy. Will look out for more from her, though.

I do, you know.

Right, videos. ENJOY:

1) Sugru. It’s like blu-tac crossed with superglue. I want to see pranks using this, please:

2) The internet loves ninjas (and it all started here, nostalgia-fans); I don’t, particularly, but I do like a nice bit of stop-motion animation and this is done very well indeed:

3) Zola Jesus is a tiny woman with a massive voice. This is her new single, from her recently released second album, called ‘Vessel’. It’s gothy, in the best possible way – take a listen:

4) So every week on The Simpsons there is, famously, a different version of the ‘couch gag‘. This week’s was drawn and animated by John K, the famously leftfield brain behind Ren & Stimpy, amongst other things. This was the result:

5) This one’s quite hard to describe, really – you sort of just have to watch it. A medley of all the bits in songs that have words that aren’t really words in them:

6) You may have heard of Alexander Ebert; I hadn’t. Either way, this video for his song ‘Truth’ is rather good, and features enough Jesus-imagery to keep me happy for days:

7) This really, really scared me, hence why I’m sharing it with you:

Constraints on profanity prevent me from namechecking this hiphop supergroup; just have a listen, it’s good stuff (if sweary):

9) I’m really not sure if I can put this here, but why not. You may remember Rubberbandits from their smash Christmas novelty single ‘Horse Outside’ (do watch it, it’s AWESOME, and you will be singing it all afternoon) – this is their new one. Enjoy (and no offence intended to anyone):

Think, then, of this edition of Web Curios as the lightbox to your SAD, the plaster to your axewound (for future reference, an unpleasant conjunction of words to Google), the United Nations to your genocide. I’m here to help. To that end, here are some recommendations for awesome stuff you can do in London over the next few months (NB – that last link is one of the best things I’ve seen in years, very much recommended. Oh, and for an interesting take on Libya, you could do worse than read this). In the real world! NOT ON THE INTERNET! Crazy but true.

But for now it’s still all about the internet. Well, on this particular blog it is, anyway. If you don’t like it, you know what you can do (though I’d prefer it if you didn’t; I’m needy, and low-to-moderate traffic figures are all that’s standing between me and a P45).

The Haunting, by Robert Longo

The Section Which Pertains Most to My Job And Which I Know Most People Skip:

• UK Internet Usage Stats: Fresh from the Office of National Statistics. Unsurprising, but useful.
• TwitterStuff: So it’s been a big week for Twitter announcements. Yesterday they confirmed that they’d hit the 100million active users mark, along with a host of other stats which those of you who are on Google+ should be able to see here – the main points to note are in terms of the rapidity of year-on-year growth, and monthly visits to the website. In case any more proof is needed, this simply reinforces the impression that the vast majority of Twitter users are logging on to glean information rather than to share it. Whilst they’ve selfishly failed to give any demographic data – because, fact fans, that’s what they are going to be making big bucks from selling to advertisers – it’s still useful stuff to chuck into presentations to convince people they NEED TO PAY YOU MORE MONEY. Speaking of ads on Twitter, apparently most people exposed to them don’t find them annoying – which is either great news for advertisers or (and let’s have a quick think as to which of these two options is most likely to be true) a sign most users simply don’t notice them. In either case, we’re getting them in the UK next month, which is convenient given Twitter have just hired 5 people to sell them. Still not hired me, though, the fools.
• Google Correlate: I tweeted this on Monday and then realised that I am simply not a good enough writer to explain it in 140 characters. Google Correlate allows users to draw a trend graph of volume against time, and then finds search volumes that map against that curve, allowing you to draw totally spurious correlations between entirely random variables. Which, given that’s what makes up a large part of PR stories in the press, is a GODSEND for this beknighted industry.
• A Cute Thing on Google+: (which, I think, you can only see if you’re on Google+ OMG SO EXCLUSIVE) So Emilio Boronali posted this picture of Batman hitchhiking on Monday morning – within 24h, the picture had been shared by 60+ people, taking it literally all the way around the world. Which isn’t, obviously, earth-shattering news, but it’s a nice illustration of the way in which G+ ties together a lot of Google’s elements (in this instance maps + location + social) into one package. You watch brands shamelessly rip this off for promo purposes as soon as their filthy, moneygrabbing hands are allowed anywhere near the as-yet-pristine, shiny, unmolested purity of the platform.
• Facebook Things: So Facebook’s changed loads of stuff since I last did one of these, including ditching its deals service, but loads of people have covered that already so I won’t. Couple of brief things, though: firstly, you can now check in to non-physical locations on Facebook which is pretty big for marketing around TV shows and videogames; secondly, my colleague Chris Smith (who, let it be known, bears an uncanny resemblance to power-larynxed chart-topper Adele) wrote this rather helpful blogpost containing template T&Cs for Facebook competitions; thirdly, this list of the ‘most engaged’ Facebook brand pages in the UK is useful to gauge how you’re doing – and also as a proof-point to clients that high numbers do not equal an engaged audience.
• A really, really horrible diagram about earned/owned/ohgodiwanttokillmyself media that will doubtless be in hundreds of generic ‘this is why you need to hire a digital agency!’ presentations for evermore. Get it, before it gets you.
• Another infographic, this time about why your client’s fascinating ‘viral’ (read: advert) probably won’t go viral. Oh, and this is one of the best YouTube ‘takeover’ things I’ve seen in ages for TV show Primeval.
• Something that annoyed me: So, this week, esteemed digital industry bible New Media Age published a list of the 100 most influential pr/marketing types on social media in the UK – as ranked by PeerIndex (which, like Klout, is a tool purporting to quantify online influence algorithmically). A list populated by people who had to NOMINATE THEMSELVES to be on the list, ranked using a technology that even the most charitable of observers would at best class as ‘iffy’. If there’s any way to make people who work in digital-type stuff look more self-regarding, onanistic, blinkered, kool aid-addled and downright pathetic then please let me know in the comments and I’ll probably resign. (NB – This post is by no means motivated by my non-appearance on this list. Honest).

Photograph Copyright d. e. eastman

The Bambuser Challenge: Ok, so this is technically still PR-ish, but it’s fun enough to come under the ‘not really strictly to do with my job’ section. Bambuser is a live streaming service that allows you to broadcast direct from your phone, etc, to the web. To promote it, Hans from Bambuser is RIGHT AT THIS VERY MOMENT wandering around London for 24h – until midday tomorrow, in fact – taking suggestions from the internet as to what to do. A really nice piece of promotional activity, if potentially life-threatening to poor old Hans. Please, internets, don’t send him to try and buy rock on the Walworth Estates at 4am.

Andy Carvin Profile: One of the most interesting things (in internetty terms, at least) of the year to date has been the emergence of filtering and curation as a legitimate new form of journalism. Noone has embodied this better throughout the Arab Spring than NPR’s Andy Carvin on Twitter, who has effectively become the de facto filter and fact-checker for on-the-ground conflict reporting. Really interesting piece, and worth reading if you’re at all curious about the intersection between Twitter and journalism.

The Story Of The Exile: This is a few years old now, but it’s still an amazing tale. I used to read The Exile many years ago, primarily for the legendary / horrific ‘Whore-er Stories’ column – this account of its rise and fall from Vanity Fair gives a pretty comprehensive overview of what was almost certainly THE most Gonzo newspaper of the modern age.

A Few Interesting  Story-related Things:

• This is my favourite iPad thing ever – an app that can create infinite children’s stories. It almost makes me want to have children so that I can read to them (but not quite)
• Snapjudgment is a wonderful website, collecting stories set to music, each week collating them around different themes. It’s sort of hard to describe, but if you like poetry, spoken word, or just being read to, this should tick quite a few boxes
• The Karada is a new Transmedia project by one of the writers behind Heroes and Tea4Two. Detail are sketchy at the moment, but the teaser video looks interesting and it will be worth keeping an eye on this to see how it develops. It feels very much like transmedia as a concept should work, and yet I wonder whether we are too ingrained into passivity as consumers of narrative to fully engage with it. Wow, that was a poncy sentence. Sorry.
• Little Free Libraries –  I cannot endorse this project heartily enough

Weirdly pretty. Photo by Guillermo Legaria, AFP

Huxtable Hotness: Ever wanted to go over EXACTLY what everyone in the Cosby show wore, episode by episode? You’d get on with whichever weirdo’s behind this blog, then.

Art-Inspired Fashion: My love of this website is conceptual more than anything else, as a) I’m not a cross-dresser and b) I dress appallingly, but it’s a beautiful idea. Taking classic art and putting together outfits based on either the garments depicted or the colour-palette. This feels like something Selfridges would do in a window display, in a good way.

London’s Campest Statues: If you have any sort of interest in London as a city then you really should pick up some back issues of Smoke, a semi-regular fanzine to the city that was put together by some very talented people indeed for much of the past decade. It’s on hiatus now, but their overview of London’s campest statues survives online, and is wonderful.

Hollywood Home Movies: No, not in the Kardashian / Hilton sense. From a time when Hollywood stars had dignity and class and had sex in private. Amazing footage of some proper icons.

WINTER IS COMING (pic by Alexi Hobbs)

And now to the videos. Some good ones here this week, even if I do say so myself:

1) I’m getting this out of the way first, as I’m guessing lots of you will have heard it already, but this has been an absolute earworm for me the past week and I am hoping this will exorcise it.  Lizzy Grant calls herself Lana Del Rey and is either the most beautiful woman ever or slightly duckfaced. This song is called Video Games; try getting it out of your head.

2) From someone who is very obviously going to be VERY VERY FAMOUS quite soon, to someone who might not be but really deserves some recognition. This bedroom recreation of Gorillaz’ Feel Good Inc. is absolutely jawdropping – long time since I’ve seen someone use loops this well:

3) I don’t quite understand what’s going on here. I think the video’s from the Philippines, but frankly that’s immaterial. HOW DO THEY DO THIS???? The level of mimicry is simply uncanny, and not a little frightening:

4) In The Fall is an excellent short animation by Steve Cutts that will either make you strangely zen or quite depressed. Your mileage may vary:

5) This video for White Nights by Oh Land (who, apparently, is a Danish-born singer-songwriter and record producer who now lives – unsurprisingly – in Williamsburg, Brooklyn) wins this week’s award for ‘throw the kitchen sink at it’ visual design:

6) Mowgli’s a London-based hiphop-y artist (you can read an interview with him here), who’s made a truly ODD video for his song Skydiver. It’s got nipples in it, though not many, and according to Dan it’s basically ‘taxidermy porn’. Don’t worry, though, it’s not really:

7) This is just a really lovely song, if a little sad. Peter and Kerry – Knees:

And this is a beautifully shot video for Low’s latest single Especially Me. Will make you want to go to New York:

9) Finally, this is called ‘Going to the shops’. No, I don’t understand either, but it’s HORRIBLE:

Except obviously the past week in London really has felt rather like the end times are coming. Every so slightly hyperbolic, admittedly, but watching Tottenham go off on Saturday night and then the rest of the city (and indeed the country) across the next few days has been a depressing, sobering experience. Here, for your delight and edification, are some thoughts and links and things on what’s been happening over the past week. If you want, you can skip to the bottom where the videos are – I will think you an intellectual lightweight, but so be it.

Not really sure this needs a caption (pic by Lewis Whyld, PA/AP)

• It wasn’t about the internet (again): Just like the Arab Spring uprisings weren’t the ‘Facebook Revolution’, these were not the ‘Twitter Riots’. [NB - as an aside, do take a moment to check your favourite social media guru/commentator/agency's past record on both these events. Find anyone who said that the Arab Spring was a result of social media who has subsequently said that the UK riots *weren't* a result of social media? They are an intellectually inconsistent moron. Fact]. These were riots born out of poverty, ignorance, disaffection (more of which later) – they were not born out of people having access to means of communication. Whilst it’s true that BBM made it easier for people to coordinate, IT DID NOT CAUSE THE RIOTS, YOU IDIOTS. Neither did Twitter. Neither did Facebook.
• For a really, really smart overview of technology’s REAL role in the violence, you could do worse than look at this SlideShare
• Or, if you’d rather read something, this piece from GigaOM is rather good too – and makes the point that, y’know, maybe all the RIOTPORN on TV and in the papers doesn’t entirely help either
• Clamping down on technology usage is not a solution: Guess what, Louise Mensch? THERE ARE MULTIPLE MEANS OF COMMUNICATION. People can talk, they can call, they can Skype, they can use Google+ hangouts, they can use MSN, they can use any one of a number of downloadable IM clients for their phones, they can write letters, they can send smoke signals…it will not prevent an angry minority of people from organising themselves. And that’s not even beginning to look at the legal ramifications of country-specific blocks on international services (which for Twitter in particular is very tricky indeed), or indeed the MASSIVE hypocrisy of people who decried the Saudi administration last year for its attempt to restrict BBM, or Vodafone working with the Egyptian government earlier this year to suppress uprisings…
• It is social in the real sense: there was a short New Yorker piece earlier in the week which contained one of the more pertinent quotes I read on the violence – to whit, “Everything everyone was saying about the riots seemed to involve the word “social”: social services, social unrest, social media.”. It’s a social problem – that is, a problem whose fundamental root is in society. There’s a term, coined by sociologist Emile Durkheim in the early 20th Century, called ‘Anomie’ – read about it here. This is part of what we’re seeing. It’s not a result of the coalition closing youth clubs – though I don’t believe that helps – it goes further back than that; to Thatcher effectively abandoning entire swathes of society in the early 80s, to the rise and rise and rise of consumer culture (people who work in advertising, marketing, PR – and yes, I know that includes me – you’re part of the problem too, you know), to the Blair administration’s disastrous attempted modifications to the educational system of the UK in the mid/late-90s…IT’S COMPLICATED. The Guardian’s reporting of yesterday’s Commons debate gives a decent overview of the opinions of politicians of all stripes – worth reading. Oh, and if you want a 90 second microcosmic (and saddening)  view of a couple of reasons why things got so messy – from both sides of the fence – I’d watch the below video:

• It could be worse, though: We could have these morons in charge.

Now, ENOUGH. Let’s move on, temporarily. OTHER THINGS!

Happy Friday, everyone!

Twitter:

• Has launched its own photosharing service. Not earth-shattering, but interesting in terms of it attempting to own a suite of services rather than relying on third parties
• Is changing the way the timeline works. I could rewrite this, but frankly I don’t see the point as TechCrunch explained it very well indeed. “Specifically, the “@Mentions” tab on twitter.com is being replaced by two new tabs: “@USERNAME” and “Activity”. These two streams will add an additional layer to Twitter and to Tweets themselves, a layer showing the social activity around them. The @USERNAME (obviously, USERNAME will be replaced by your Twitter name) stream will still show your @replies, but it will also show things like when someone follows you, when someone favorites one of your Tweets, when someone retweets one of your Tweets, or when someone adds you to a list. The Activity stream will show you all of those things, but related to all of the people you follow on Twitter. In other words, you can see if a connection has retweeted a Tweet, or if they followed someone new, etc.” So there.
• Has a(nother) competitor! Say “hello” to Heello”! (*loses will to live*) As far as I can tell, Heello is a pretty much exact copy of Twitter (though they suggest that they are rolling out new features in the future which will provide points of difference). Noone’s on it yet. Possibly they never will be. Feel free, though, to namedrop it in all client meetings for the next 2 weeks to prove how BLEEDING EDGE you are.

Rolling.fm: In other copycat website news, hipster and social media guru favourite Turntable.fm – a music website that lets you play virtual DJ to whoever wants to listen, but which you can’t access outside the US, so God only knows why I bothered with that hyperlink as, to my knowledge, this thing has about 1 non-UK reader – has been effectively cloned. Rolling.fm is FUN; was playing around with it the other day, and I recommend it.

Did you know that there are rodeos in which children ride sheep? You do now.

Google + Launches Games: This was one of the things that smart folk were predicting when Google+ launched the other month. Lo and behold, they were RIGHT.  Not rolled out to everyone yet, but another platform to consider if your clients want to explore gaming; and certainly one where you can get “FIRST!!!” kudos.

Speaking Of Games, This One’s LOVELY – While away the rest of your afternoon with Grey, by KevinDoesArt. Or this one, by the BBC – it is ADDICTIVE, I warn you.

Like an explosion in a vomit factory. Click for more HIDEOUS 90s clothes

Beautiful Photography of WWII, in colour

The Best Writing You’ll Read All Week – Sorry to get all serious again, but this is a brilliant, brilliant essay about the realities of reporting from a warzone. Bookmark it for Sunday morning with a coffee. Closely followed by this (back to the riots again).

If You’re Bored In The Office, Do This

Radioactive Music: Well, not exactly, but this website allows you to compose music based on the relative frequencies of radioactive isotopes and proves that EVERYTHING IS MATHS. Awesome.

Google Maps Art – Jenny Odell makes art from things she find on Google Maps and it is rather captivating; see below:

125 Swimming Pools, and not one of them is mine

Right, well that was a bit of a weird one wasn’t it? I promise I won’t ever try to ‘do’ politics ever again, honest. Videothings:

1) The National are an awesome band. They were featured in Portal 2, which is an awesome game.  The people behind Portal 2 ran a competition inviting fans of the song to make their own video for it; this was the winning entry, and it is BRILLIANT – LOOK AT THE SAD PUPPET:

2) You may have heard that Levi’s pulled an ad campaign this week, considering it ‘insensitive’ in the wake of recent events. They were probably right to, on reflection:

3) We did superhero remote controlled planes a little while back, but I think these are almost better. LOOK! FLYING FISH!

4) Have you ever wanted to hear what Nirvana’s Smells Like Teen Spirit sounds like when played by two annoyingly goodlooking men with cellos? Truly, then, I am being good to you:

5) Jesse Boykins III – could anyone have a more American name? Possibly, but that’s not important right now. This isn’t usually my sort of thing, but the song and video cheered me right up this week, so perhaps it will do the same to you:

6) This is a bit more like my sort of thing. Ed Sheeran’s been all over the press over the past few months, and seems to have collaborated with literally everyone moderately fashionable musician in the UK. This time it’s Devlin and Wretch 32, on the surprisingly happy-sounding “You Don’t Need Me, I Don’t Need You”:

7) New Vi Hart maths doodles; literally the most instructive and soothing thing you will see all week:

Continuing the soothing tip, this video for Teebs’ song “Moments” is pretty much the antithesis of rioting:

9) Finally, something that’s not soothing at all. From 2007, but really resonated with me this week. Marvin The Martian – Get By. Be nice to each other, everyone:

Anyway, there’s a lot to catch up on. Some people’s phones got hacked and everyone got VERY ANGRY; the most powerful man in the world turned 50; my new favourite rapper released a mixtape; I went to Boston and saw none of it (but did get to fly business class and thus received a pair of complimentary pyjamas – THANKS VIRGIN –  which was well worth the £3,000 that the flights apparently cost); oh, God, loads of things.

None of that matters, though. What does matter is that you immediately click on this link and donate money to stop people dying of starvation in Somalia. Thanks.

Frankly nothing that you’re going to read from hereon in matters one iota compared to the above, but it’s probably going to be marginally more cheering. Read on, and make your Friday afternoon of wageslavery marginally less soul-crushingly worthless than it might otherwise be.

Photo by Eric Boucann. Still no clue who it is of, but I am in love.

PHOTOUPDATE – The internet is incredible. The lovely Wes West tweeted me to tell me he’d tracked down the image above – it’s a mystery French woman at the Paris launch of arts/culture magazine ‘Pas Un Autre‘. So there you go.

Google+ – Of course, the other SEISMICALLY IMPORTANT happening in my absence was Google’s latest foray into social media (remember this?), in the shape of Google+. Too much virtual ink has already been expended by social media idiots working themselves into a frenzy over a) what it is; b) what it’s for; c) whether it will kill Facebook; d) how and when big brands are going to be able to use it as yet another platform from which to shill a load of worthless tat to a bunch of ordinary people who just want to talk to their friends, and so I don’t need (or, frankly, want) to wang on about it too much. The short answer to all of the above is “Calm down, NOONE KNOWS YET”, though I would say that the only standout feature that I’ve seen on it to date is the ‘Hangouts’ capability, which does offer some really interesting possibilities. The only tip I have, webmongs, is to keep an eye on it – and the best way to do that is to bookmark THIS PAGE – Google’s own resource detailing new features, updates, etc, updated as they’re rolled out. Go on, do it. Oh, a few other Google-related things:

• Make phonecalls through Gmail: I’m staggered that more people haven’t picked this up. Cheap, and an interesting alternative to Skype
• How Google Dominates Us: This is a wonderful, if long, piece from the New York Review of Books, looking at the growth of Google, how it makes money and how it’s integrated itself in such a massive way into the lives of every single internet-enabled person on the planet. Bookmark and read, you will be smarter for it.
• Gmail Man!: Of course, not everyone loves Google. Microsoft certainly doesn’t, and they want you to hate Google (and in particular Gmail) as much as they do. So they made this video – almost certainly one of the most toe-curlingly awful attempts to ‘do’ funny video content I have ever seen. Please show this to the next corporate client who comes to you wanting a ‘funny’ ‘viral’. The fact that comments are disabled says everything you need to know about the internet’s reaction to this gem.

Paris, 1997

It’s probably not worth bothering with QR Codes: I was on a train in Italy the other week, and for the first time ever saw a REAL PERSON trying to use a QR code from a magazine (it was from a Nivea advert, fact fans). They couldn’t get it to work. They got frustrated. They swore, colourfully. It was so Italian. I’ve written before, repeatedly, about how I think QR codes are the sort of thing that only people who work in media/advertising/PR/marketing are likely to care about; now it looks like there might be a viable alternative. Layar, doyennes of the Augmented Reality marketplace, have launched Layar Vision, which does what QR codes do without the need for a QR code. (Very) Basically, the software recognises real-world objects and shows digital content on top of them; so you could, for example, use to allow users to simply point their phone at a film poster and immediately see the movie’s trailer on their phone – no code, no download, no friction. Let’s see if it takes off. If it does, these people’s business probably isn’t going to go so well

YouTube Creators’ Playbook – This is useful. YouTube last week published a proper idiots’ guide to how to make the platform work best for you. Next time someone demands that you write them an online video strategy or somesuch, just cobble together something based on this and slope off to the pub instead.

Western Union Facebook Thingy – This is clever. Western Union, the money transfer people, created this application that trawls your Facebook profile, analyses the number of friends you have (and where they are, how many friends they have, etc) and then gives you a personalised infographic displaying all this data and (and this is the clever bit) ranking you against your friends, your fellow countrymen and THE WORLD. Smart because a) it gives you something pretty for free; b) it appeals to social media idiots’ innate sense of vanity; and c) it allows Western Union to find out who the ‘most connected’ people on Facebook within specific territories are, so that it can then attempt to use them for social media campaigns in the future. Bit creepy though.

Jello Twitter Thing – Smart use of a billboard by Jello (Jelly, but spelled wrong) in the US, analysing ’sentiment’ on Twitter based on the use of happy and sad emoticons – the gigantic animatronic face on the billboard gurns in response to fluctuating levels of happysad, and gives out discount vouchers when the world (or at least the part of it that is privileged enough to have internet access) is downcast.

I often feel like this

A Portmanteau Collection Of Stuff I’ve Recently Liked:

• Beautiful Swearwords: I like swearing; I like typography. This website was always going to make me happy. If it doesn’t make you happy, you’re a [redacted].
• Holy Smoke: Apparently this is not a hoax, which is good as I will now be able to fulfil my lifelong dream of killing someone after I’m dead.
• Run For Your Life: I don’t really *do* exercise – those who know me personally can testify to my less-than-athletic frame and the fact that I have the muscletone of an elastic band. That said, this might persuade me to go running – I think the added frisson of a potential zombie attack would add zest to an otherwise mundane 5k. Reminds me of this, which is still one of the funnest things I’ve ever done, ever.
• Explain It Like I’m 5: This week’s obligatory Reddit thread is a gem; contributors explain complex concepts / issues in the simplest fashion they can. You will be cleverer for reading some of these, I promise you (and you may get a slightly better understanding of why the world is so utterly, utterly banjaxed at the moment).
• I Do Not Have An Eating Disorder: Brilliant and very honest comicbook account of a woman coming to terms with her problems with food. On a similar tip, this website collects pictures of real women’s bodies - no, not in a pervy way – categorised by bodyframe, weight, etc; an interesting study.
• The Best Headline Ever: Yes, I know that this is a spoof website (ChristWire is like The Onion for mental Christian fundamentalists), but it’s a genius piece of writing.
• Gorgeous Art From Videogames: Exactly what it says on the tin. Lovely work, whether you’re a geek or otherwise (no, really).
• Luke Haines Does Food: Luke Haines was, amongst other things, in a band called Black Box Recorder who were AWESOME. He’s written a brilliant, bitter account of his time in a minor indie band at the height of britpop. Now he’s got a foodblog, and like everything else he does, it’s brilliant. The talented sod.

I don't want to think too hard about what happens in here

So, that’s your lot. Was it worth it? Oh Christ, I don’t know. Look, have some videos:

1) I know nothing about this, other than that it is called ‘Trim’ and it’s WONDERFUL:

2) Scroobius Pip’s a very talented man (and by all accounts a rather nice one too). You probably know him from ‘Thou Shalt Always Kill’, but he’s actually loads better than that. Check out the below and see what I mean:

3) Continuing Web Curios’ proud tradition of championing young animation talent (I’ve done it 3 times; that’s PRACTICALLY tradition in this ADD internet age, alright?), Mac & Cheese is an awesome short animation by 4 students from the Utrecht School of the Arts. There’s a touch of Team Fortress 2 about the character designs, which is no bad thing imho:

4) I heard this last week, and it’s stuck with me – Hopsin’s an LA rapper whose style’s not dissimilar to early Eminem. This track – The Ill Mind of Hopsin 4 – is awesome, and contains a rather nice Tyler The Creator diss:

5) Speaking of Tyler, this is an unofficial video for his track ‘Transylvania”, by High 5 Collective. It’s a dark, dark song, and the video’s not exactly happy-go-lucky either – it’s got strong echoes of Larry Clark’s ‘Kids’, for those of you old enough to remember it. Watch, but caveat emptor and all that:

6) Until I googled them just now, I had no idea who Kap Bambino are. Presuming Wikipedia’s not lying to me, they’re a couple of hipsters from Bordeaux. No matter, this is a brilliant video for their song ‘Obsess’:

7) Neon Hitch is the globetrotting child of hippies. She’ covered Wiz Khalifa’s ‘On My Level’ and I reckon it’s better than the original. Also there are some brilliant faces in this video:

I’ve featured Manchester Orchestra before, but make no apologies for doing so again. The song, Virgin, is great – as is the video, made by Ben Disinger, a fan who made the band watch it on his laptop whilst they were touring. They were so impressed they used it as their official promo. Which is nice.

9) Ok, so be aware that this video is pretty much entirely NSFW, despite just being an animation. It’s all for a good reason, though, SO THAT’S OK THEN. I’ve featured AIDES before (remember Smutley The Cat?); this is their latest AIDS-awareness promo, called ‘Sexy Fingers’ – there’s a website too, should you fancy investigating further…:

The rest of you, though, for whom it is NOT your month, will simply have to content yourselves with the following collection of webthings. Apart from The Man – for it is always his month.

Alice Was A Lot Less Innocent Than Is Often Presumed

This Week’s Facebook Things:

• HOW MANY PEOPLE? – The relentless march of the Zuck continues; 700million of us now having signed up to the magical world of Facebook. The stat is in and of itself not that interesting; aside from the jaw-dropping number, it was pretty much inevitable (as is the billion figure, which we can expect to see in about 18 months I reckon – but, er, don’t hold me to that). More interesting is to look at the risers; Brazil growing 11% in the past month is a clear indication that it’s taken hold there (it is, I am noticing, very hard to describe Facebook in ways which don’t make it sound like some sort of virus; draw your own conclusions, like for example that I am a mediocre writer), which is noteworthy in terms of the growing homogenisation of networks and pretty depressing if you work at Orkut.
• Museum of Me – Most of you will, I imagine, have seen Intel’s Museum of Me project by now – if not, click the link and have a play. It’s a very slick, cleverly done project that takes your personal data from Facebook (friends you interact with most, photos, things you’ve ‘liked’, etc) and turns them into a personalised museum-themed photoshowreelthing. Cute, slick, very viral. It also, however, can throw up some slightly odd results if you’re still friends with your exes or dead people – this is a short piece about that very thing. The ever-charming Rob Boella doesn’t think this is an issue, and I agree that it doesn’t make it a bad project; what it does do, though, is highlight the manner in which technology cannot in any way judge relationships and emotion (yet), that algorithms don’t have feelings, and that the permanence of much of what we put online can sometimes come back to haunt us.

News About Buttons (this feels like a nadir):

• Twitter Adds ‘Follow’ Button – Not only did Google’s +1 button go live this week, but Twitter launched its ‘Follow’ button – a piece of code you can embed on any webpage which will allow people to follow associated Twitter accounts with one click. It’s not revolutionary, but it’s smart in terms of minimising the number of clicks necessary to follow an account. Oh, and they’re also revamping Search (again) and launching their own photo service to rival yfrog and twitpic, in case you care.

• LinkedIn Announces ‘Apply for a Job’ Button – or, as one wag put it, LinkedIn gets a purpose. This is very clever on their part – by donig this (allowing job applicants to submit information about themselves, their career history, skills, etc – all of which (the theory goes) they will have on LinkedIn anyway – in one click), LinkedIn are placing themselves at the heart of the recruitment mechanic in a way that is intuitive and relatively frictionless. Maybe the insane valuation’s not quite as insane as it initially looked. Maybe.

Photo by Raymond Cauchetier, from the set of Godard's "Breathless" (1960)

Slightly Weird/Upsetting Things – it’s been a particularly good week for creepy and unsettling webstuff. I’m going to collect some of it for you here:

• Motherlode of Oddness: Reddit is increasingly becoming THE site for collections of interesting leftfield content; this particular thread, inviting users to highlight the creepiest websites they know, is a case in point. There is a lot of absolute gold on that list – er, depending, of course, on your tastes – and a lot of stuff that you might not want to click on at all, ever. So, you know, take care.
• The Deep Web: Following on from the above, this is another thread about the ‘Deep Web’; that is, those bits of the internet that aren’t indexed by search engines and that you can’t find through Google. If you ignore the slightly techy stuff, this is an interesting (and at times pretty upsetting) look at the really dark underbelly of the internet (oh, and where people go to buy and sell drugs and guns and stuff). You know all the bad things that you know happen somewhere online but you don’t know where? This is about that.
• Magibon: I have literally no idea what this is, but it’s been messing with my head all week and so I want it to mess with yours too.
• The Killer: This is a ‘game’ (or, as the author describes it, a ‘notgame’) based on the killing fields of Cambodia. It is not a happy experience, but it is a very affecting one. Takes about 3 minutes, best with sound.
• Spider: From the man who makes the giant baby heads (also in today’s Metro; they are evidently using my Twitter feed as inspiration) comes this short slice of nightmarefodder.
• Salad Fingers: Salad Fingers is something of an internet institution. Started in 2004, it’s been three years since the last episode. You can catch the whole lot of them here – it is simultaneously brilliant and horrible and funny and really, really sad. And weird, obviously.
• Our Blood-Stained Roof: Hell of a webcomic by Ryan Andrews about dead swans and childhood and stuff.
• Your Life As Porn: Wageslavery as seen through a porn filter. Totally SFW, but guaranteed to make you feel very, very reluctant to come into work on Monday.

This isn't really helping to lighten the mood, is it?

Art With Cards:

• Cheering Postcards: You might be feeling in need of a small pick-me-up after that, so this might help. Tell Cohitre if you are feeling sad, and it (him/her/they – literally no clue) will make you a special card JUST FOR YOU to cheer you up, and mail it to you. A small example of loveliness, of which I would like to see more.
• Not-so-cheering Postcards: Want to deliver a crippling emotional blow to someone you care(d) for? These will probably do the trick, in that case.

All Of The Pornography On The Internet: Not really, of course; instead, it’s a fascinating interview by Time Magazine with the people behind A Billion Wicked Thoughts, which purports to be the largest analysis ever of sexual behaviour and proclivities in the online space – basically 2011’s Kinseys. Fascinating, and a lot less grubby than you might think.

Shawn Smith makes beautiful pixel-style sculptures

VIDEO! It did not, contrary to popular opinion, kill the radio star. Enjoy.

1) If this blog had a soundtrack it would be this song. Los Alguiens, ‘El Internet’. Mental:

2) This one was sent to me (by this fine person) just after last week’s Curios went out, which is a shame as then it would have been NEW and SHINY whereas now I have a sneaking suspicion most of you will have seen it. Hey ho. Anyway, it is still a truly awesome video. Watch. Is Tropical – The Greeks:

3) The LHC is the Large Hadron Collider. That makes sense. The VLC is, apparently, the Very Large Telescope, which is frankly the laziest bit of naming ever. No matter – it can make videos like this one, so frankly it can call itself Alan for all I care:

4) If you missed this on the Twitter this week, prepare to be amazed. This, ladies and gentlemen, is the future. Or at least the good bit of the future, before the robots learn how to, you know, overthrow us and stuff. Still, til then THINK OF HOW AWESOME THE FUTUREOLYMPICS WILL BE:

5) I’ve featured Akala on here before, but I am going to continue to do so as he is consistently brilliant. Another great freestyle by him for GrimeDaily:

6) There was a one-shot video on here a few months back by an American band whose name I forget. This one blows that away. 4million views and counting, and you can see why – beautiful. This is Brazilian band A Banda Mais Bonita De Cidade (that’s ‘The Most Beautiful Band in the City, translation fans!):

7) The Wayward Gallery is an arts space in Bethnal Green. There’s an exhibition opening there tonight. This is the ‘trailer’ for it. I don’t know what to think, frankly:

I like Seasick Steve, even though I have it on reasonably good authority that the hobo schtick’s not quite as authentic as the record company would have you believe, and this video for his latest song “You Can’t Teach An Old Dog New Tricks” is very nice animation indeed:

9) To close, a final mention of pornography. This is, I think, the opening to a bongo movie – it’s sfw, though the language is a bit fruity (see what I did there? Oh, no, you haven’t watched the clip yet and so that will be lost on you. Damn), but it really does beg the question as to what was going on in the minds of everyone involved when they were writing the script:

I won’t, of course; I need the money that webmonging provides. Instead, I will pause a moment to reflect upon a week in which it turns out that God’s not quite ready for us yet (unless of course the Rapture in fact happened and it simply turned out that He took a good look at us and thought “Actually, hang on, none of this shower is worth saving”.  It wouldn’t be that surprising, given, you know, stuff like this); in which Ryan Giggs realised that you can’t in fact sue the internet (an aside – does anyone else think there’s something STARTLINGLY VULGAR about the incredible speed at which the Imogen Thomas cash-in vehicle is now moving? The full-page Paddy Power ads in this morning’s Metro were a particular highlight; well done, everyone, aren’t we CLEVER!), thus hopefully putting an end to this startlingly tedious superinjunction business (or that’s what Giles Coren hopes, anyway. Out of interest, if I just write Gareth Barry’s name here does that mean that I go to jail too?); in which some of the most powerful men in the world met in London (and they let The Man play too!) to take part in what appears to have been the worst game of table tennis ever played; and in which over 13,000 people LISTENED TO MY VOICE – on that point, in the unlikely event that anyone from Radio 4 is reading this and you fancy mixing up your roster of continuity announcers a bit, I am absolutely open to offers. HIRE ME, RADIO 4.

On that note, and with the threat of both jail and, I would imagine, the sack hanging over me, on with the internetstuff. Happy Friday, my children, happy Friday to one and all.

I have no idea why, but I love this picture very much indeed.

Things About The Internet:

• These aren’t new news, so I won’t dwell on them as you’ve doubtless read about them on some other SOCIAL MEDIA GURU’S blog, but Facebook has added the ability to tag Pages in photos (thus giving us all that longed-for ability to link to Coca Cola’s Facebook page from our pictures. Hear that sound? That’s the sound of thousands and thousands of souls, fizzing sadly into nothingness as we take one more step towards being nothing more than dead-eyed marketing shills!), and has also updated the manner in which its ‘Share’ functionality works, allowing users to share links with specific Groups / Friends. There’s nothing evil about that, I don’t think.
• This IS New – Google Correlate – New cleverness from Google, allowing you to map search terms against each other to find patterns. It’s appallingly hard to explain, or at least it is for me; they do it rather better on the site, so I suggest that you go there.
• Social Search and Filter Bubbles and Stuff: Both Google and Bing hace recently been wanging on about their increased commitment to integrating social into search; that is, factoring in data from your Facebook and Twitter profiles when compiling search results. WHY IS THIS A GOOD IDEA? Ok, so I’m possibly being a luddite about this, but my friends are not necessarily experts on stuff I am searching for. Just because 8 morons who I used to go to school with and haven’t spoken to in 16 years happen to ‘like’ a story from the Mail Online doesn’t mean I want it appearing at the top of my search rankings. Ok, so obviously it’s more sophisticated than this, but this is a prime example of the growing problem of filter bubbles, as brilliantly explained in this recent TED talk by Eli Pariser (it really is interesting, I promise) – that is, information filtering based on existing tastes / preferences, and the problem of sourcing that this can and does create; when the web can learn our tastes, can provide us with prioritised information based on what our friends – who are likely to be like us – are consuming, what are the long-term consequences? This isn’t a new concept – after all, people have been reading the newspaper that best reinforces their existing worldview for years – but one that will become increasingly relevant as automated curation becomes ’smarter’ (or, at the very least, more ubiquitous). Perhaps we should all make an effort to take our news from a different source each week? Just a thought.
• NOT STRICTLY ABOUT THE INTERNET BUT STILL WORTH READING: A Really Good Article About Making: As an antidote to that, this is genuinely the most inspiring thing I’ve read in ages. I am generally not a fan of motivational / life lesson-type stuff, but this is a truly wonderful piece of writing about doing and making and creativity and the brilliance of being curious. Do take 5 minutes to read it; I promise you that you will be slightly happier and more inspired afterwards.
• How To Win Arguments On The Internet Without Really Knowing What You’re Talking About: This is actually a very smart piece on the psychology of debate and the particular application of it online. Part of a series of essays, and worth a look. Largely so you can up your troll game.

YES!

Some Websites I Have Liked Recently:

• Ana Somnia – I’ve never been a little girl, and it’s unlikely this state of affairs will change in this lifetime; nonetheless, had I been one this is what I like to imagine my dreams would have been like. An awesomely trippy website which is halfwaybetween storybook and art project, and which has one of the most captivatingly creepy and odd soundtracks I’ve heard in a while. Click and play – a lot of it’s procedurally generated, it would seem, which means each of you will experience it in a different manner.
• Vorsong Iceberg Energy Water Feng Shui Brand! – I’m reasonably sure that this is some sort of spoof, but I’m buggered if I can work out of what / why. If it’s not, there are some very, very strange people marketing this water.
• Er, Horseracing? – I don’t read Japanese, therefore my ability to understand what in the name of sweet Baby Jesus this is about is pretty much 0. It’s…just mental, really. Just click stuff until the race starts and watch, mouth agape, at the ensuing oddness.
• Shame Be Gone – My lovely colleague Chris Smith alerted me to this yesterday; it offers the potentially useful service of writing hard emails for you. Want to dump someone? Need to explain exactly why you were cheating on your wife with that glamour model? These guys can help.
• Dumb Tweets At Brands – Sometimes the quality of ‘engagement’ brands can achieve through social media is of questionable value.

Alan Sailer takes amazing pictures. Click the image for more.

The HitchHiker’s Guide To The Galaxy – This Wednesday was Towel Day, and reminded me not only of the sheer amazingness of Douglas Adams’ work but also how good the original Hitchhiker’s game was. I say ‘game’; it’s more an interactive novel, the whole thing written by Adams’ himself and containing some brilliant gags and some of the most impressive / frustrating (depending on your mood) examples of lateral thinking you will ever find. Take the afternoon off and play it. You too, The Man!

Some Wordy Stuff:

• Ulysses, On Twitter – Literary experimentation in 140 characters isn’t new (I covered this in a VERY early web curios, for example), but this is a really interesting experience. The idea is to recruit a bunch of James Joyce aficionados to take sections of the legendarily ‘challenging’ novel and submit them to a central account, from which they will be tweeted on 16th June as part of Bloomsday (an annual  celebration of Joyce’s life and work) – as the novel unfolded over the course of a single day, so the Tweets will reflect the narrative. Will be interesting to see how it works.
• Live Writing Projection – This might be my favourite thing on here this week. As part of the promotion for New Zealand’s BNZ literary awards, the opening lines of short stories were projected onto public spaces in Aotea Square, Auckland. And then passers-by started to realise that the story being written might be about them…
• Motion Poems – Poetry set to animation. Some really beautiful work on here; recommended.

Katie Alves paints scenes from films on people's eyelids. This is The Nightmare Before Christmas.

VideoStuff! Enjoy – and given the fact that it’s our last bank holiday for AGES, I ORDER you to slack off for the rest of the day and watch all of them.

1) I’m opening with what is by far and away the most rubbish song I’ve featured on Curios for AGES. It’s worth it, though, for the video is all kinds of supervideogamegeekery. See how many retrogame references you can spot – there are HUNDREDS in there. I’m thinking that the audience for this is going to be primarily male. Oh, and if you do like this song then you are a cloth-eared dunce. Sorry, but it’s true. Goldfish, with “When We Come Together”:

2) This, on the other hand, is a great song by a band called Bad Lamps. The video, made by some random off the internet, features what I think is a whole host of clips from porn movies, strung together to accompany the song. There’s no nudity whatsoever, and there’s something weirdly poignant about seeing the nonsex elements of bongo movies:

3) This song about smoking has a fair bit of Johnny Cash’s ‘Boy Named Sue’ about it, which is no bad thing, and the video is very Terry Gilliam / Monty Python-esque, which is also good. Made me really want a tab:

4) Loom is a jaw-dropping piece of animation. Probably not great if you’re an arachnophobe, mind:

5) God, OFWGKTA are SO LAST MONTH. If you never found any of their output upsetting or abrasive enough then you’ll very much like Full Moon by current internet obsession Death Grips:

6) PHEW, THAT WAS A BIT MUCH WASN’T IT? Let’s come down with this, by Black Light Dinner Party. It will make you want to be a New York hipster, just a little bit. Older Together:

7)  I have no idea who this girl is, but her endearingly inept (and very, very sweary) cover of ODB’s “Got Your Money” has made her my new favourite internet person. I bet she’d be THRILLED to know that:

It’s a remote control plane, THAT LOOKS LIKE A SUPERHERO. Amazing. Want one:

9) To close, this week’s eyemeltingly strange video of the week – there’s a point in this that genuinely makes me shudder each time I watch it. ENJOY!!!!