Our Space

There's been quite a furor since Google announced last week that it would be including personal Google+ results in web searches.  Basically, if you are logged into Google and have a Google+ account, by default your web searches will include hits from your social graph inline with regular search results.

Of course you can shut this off, and "personal" results are denoted with icons and other indicators, but the problem is that this is now the default search mode and apparently it gets turned back on at interval after you've disabled it.  Critics contend that the vast majority of users will never bother to turn it off nor pay much attention to the "personal" indicator – and thus, google's highly tweaked and previously, reasonably-fair search algorithm is broken.

Nice summary and disable-instructions here from Larry Magid.

The bottom line summary is:  until something changes, if you run a business with a web presence, you'd best have a Google+ page set up.

For some, the cost of prescription medication can be a hard pill to swallow. And although that was initially the case for 61-year-old cancer survivor Susan Braig, her attitude and spirits have since changed. As Susan watched her medical bills pile up on the kitchen table, she also saw her medicine cabinets overflowing with expired drugs from her various treatments. How could she discard these tiny, now ineffective pills when they were the very reason her debt was soaring? Because their cost was on par with precious gems, she decided to treat them the exact same way…

Read More HERE.

A super-ambitious graphic designer is making a logo for each of Minnesota's 10,000 lakes. Right now, she's turning out one a day — meaning she's on track to complete the project in 27 years.

Will she finish?  Or will she go Sufjan Stevens and peter out after just a few?

 http://www.branding10000lakes.com/

While experiencing this thought-provoking exhibition by Spanish mixed-media artist Antoni Muntadas at the Museo Reina Sofia in Madrid last week, I found several ideas that are applicable to our clients and their audiences. Here’s one:

Using media, technology, performance art and installations, Muntadas explores the various ways we send and receive information, and examines communications channels to uncover how they are used to both disseminate and restrict ideas.

Read More HERE.

An interesting (and wonk-ish) post by John Gruber discusses how the newest official Twitter clients might betray a shift in thinking among the service's masters.  There's also lots of good general stuff about twitter clients, with thoughts on the way their use can change the experience compared to simply using the service via the twitter.com web page.

 The New Twitter (R.I.P. Tweetie)

"…these changes suggest not only a difference in opinion regarding how a Twitter client should work, but also regarding just what the point is of Twitter as a service. The Twitter service I signed up for is one where people tweet 140-character posts, you follow those people whose tweets you tend to enjoy, and that’s it. The Twitter service this new UI presents is about a whole lot more — mass-market spoonfed “trending topics” and sponsored content. It’s trying to make Twitter work for people who don’t see the appeal of what Twitter was supposed to be."

When companies merge, a casualty is often corporate culture, history and storytelling. Here's a great example - a series of banks combined with themselves, leading everyone to forget about a historical treasure trove -- a collection of checks written by famous authors, composers and signers of the Declaration of Independence.  Thomas Jefferson?  Yep. $22.69.  Charles Dickens?  $21.  And Abraham Lincoln?  $800, to himself, the day he was shot.

Cached at Huntington: Lincoln's Last-Known Check

Interesting bits from a study.  Would you rather lose your wallet than your iPhone?  Is the Internet more important to you than owning a car or dating?

Young People Think The Internet Is As Important As Breathing.

These two "future vision" videos are being widely mocked in IT circles, naturally, but they are nicely produced and do make you think about how we might be using all this gadgetry in the future.

Here is the RIMM vision:  

And here is Microsoft's:

Twitter makes it possible for Kevin Durant to play flag football in Stillwater with the most excited college kids ever.

Check out what the world's greatest museums are doing with our screens. The potential to enhance any intellectual experience with apps is profound. 

Comparing Phillips Collection iPhone and iPad Tours