Interactive Angle

Inspiring 3D Flash Navigation

A colleague of mine recently sent me a link to a very cool Web site called Whitevoid.com. What makes the site cool is its 3D navigation.  The site does a really nice job of maintaining a visitor's orientation from a 3D perspective.

After doing some research I found that this site was created by a German Interactive Art Firm located in Berlin. The site was developed using Papervision3D which is an open source 3D engine for Flash.

Thanks Matt for the link!

Source: WhiteVoid.com

What Some Of The Greatest Minds Of History Say About Imagination

"Imagination is more important than knowledge" 

                                                            - ALBERT EINSTEIN

 

"Imagination makes man the paragon of animals"

                                                    - SHAKESPEARE

 

"Imagination governs the world"

                                         - DISRAELI

 

Media Company That Does 100% Eco-Advertising - CURB™

CURB™ is the world's first natural media company that has created a portfolio of unique eco-advertising services. Their services are managed by a green team of creative experts that provide eco-friendly marketing solutions without impacting the environment. CURB's media portfolio only uses natural earth elements that are sustainable. Some examples of their marketing solutions include:

• Clean Advertising - Known as reverse graffiti, clean graffiti and street advertising, where laser cut stencils are used to clean dirt away from pavements and walls.
• Snow Tagging - Allows customers to brand snow.
• Solar Art - Uses the sun to burn the intricate patterns, portraits and logos into wood.
• h2 - Marketing and branding solutions using water.

Source: CURB™

Green Depot - Retailer Makes Eco-Conscious Shopping Easier

Green Depot was founded in 2005 by Sarah Beatty. Thier mission has been to make green building products and services readily accessible so that green building can be easily adopted into standard construction operations. Thier goal has been to help establish sustainable building as cost competitive, and provide products of the highest quality that are certified green.

What a great concept!

Make sure to check out their tips for rooms section.

• Babys Room
• Bathroom
• Kitchen
• Living Room
• Ultility Room

Source: Green Depot

Google Insights For Search - Know What The World Is Searching For And When

 

A former colleague of mine recently introduced me to Google Insights for Search. The Google tool helps advertisers and marketers understand online search engine behavior. The tool offers a comprehensive set of statistics based on search volume and patterns. With this tool an advertiser or marketer can:

• Choosing Advertising Messages - Tool allows you to examine different types of messages and see how it resonates with Google's search audience. Even better the tool allows you to research new or existing markets by drilling down to a specific country, sub-region or metro area. 

• Examine Seasonal Trends - Tool also allows you to spot seasonal trends. For example you are able to view when search terms or phrases are Googled the most and least times during a specified timeframe.

There is a great deal of useful information to be gained from a tool like this. If you have had any experiences positive or negative with Google's Insights for Search please feel free to share them.

Thanks Bob!

Source: Google Insights for Search

 

Facebook - What Users Should Know About Their Privacy Settings

Facebook is a mainstream online social media tool for more than 200 million users, but did you know the default setting of your account enables search engines such as Google, Yahoo, MSN and other search engines to index some of your profile information (i.e. your name, picture, related organizations...). Did you also know that someone could also look you up using the Facebook search engine? For many people this OK, but for some indivduals this is not. The good news is Facebook empowers you to omit yourself from search engines. In addition, Facebook has other privacy controls to:

• Protect your photo albums
• Avoid photo/video tag mistake
• Prevent stories from showing up in your friends’ news feeds
• Make your contact information private
• Avoid embarrassing wall posts
• Keep your friendships private

The challenge here for many individuals is to better understand how to use the privacy settings to control what content is available to others. Below are couple of blog posts I came across that did an excellent job in explaining the privacy controls. The first lists out 10 Privacy Settings Every Facebook User Should Know and the other lists out Facebook best practices.

Sources:

• 10 Privacy Settings Every Facebook User Should Know
• Facebook Best Practices

Free Color Themes To Inspire Any Type Of Project

A colleague of mine recently introduced me to a tool created by Adobe called Kuler. Adobe Kuler is a web-hosted application for generating color themes that can inspire any project. The online tool lets you browse other users' themes or create your own using a drag-and-drop color wheel and/or numerical settings (RGB, CMYK, etc.). You can title, tag, save and publish your themes, and download them for use in other Adobe applications.

In addition to creating generating and searching for color themes the tool has an application programming interface (API) that allows developers to create new services using Kuler themes. The only requirement for using the API is developers are now required to get a developer key.  For more information about the developer key click here.

It looks like this tool has been around for sometime, but I guess it is better late than never. Thanks Andy for the recommendation.

Sources:

• Adobe Kuler Application
• Adobe Proudcts Page 
• Adobe Developer Connection - Kuler

It Is All About Our Attitude

A favorite quote by Charles R. Swindoll:

ATTITUDE

The longer I live, the more I realize the impact of attitude on life.

Attitude, to me, is more important than facts. It is more important than the past, than education, than money, than circumstances, than failures, than successes, than what other people think or say or do. It is more important than appearance, giftedness or skill. It will make or break a company... a church... a home.

The remarkable thing is we have a choice every day regarding the attitude we will embrace for that day. We cannot change our past... we cannot change the fact that people will act in a certain way. We cannot change the inevitable. The only thing we can do is play on the one string we have, and that is our attitude... I am convinced that life is 10% what happens to me and 90% how I react to it.

And so it is with you... we are in charge of our attitudes.

 

Tips On Building A Twitter Strategy

With over 10 million unique users in February and 3,000+ applications currently in development the Twitter tidal wave has arrived. Even with all of this growth and excitement around twitter most companies are in an infancy stage trying to figure out a sound strategy for this new online channel. An article I just recently came across on amplifiercontent.com did a great job in outlining where to start in defining a Twitter strategy. Below are the highlights:

• Set an objective - Without an objective, with any marketing tool, what's the point? Click for examples.
• Listen to your customers first - Many brands see Twitter as a distribution mechanism first, and a listening tool second.
• Relevant content - only distribute valuable, relevant content that your customers would be interested in.
• Assign ownership - Someone in your organization, if not a team of people, needs to be responsible for your Twitter updates.
• Be democratic - Promoting content from other organizations (even your competitors) gives you credibility. Show that you are out for your customers' best interests, no matter the source of content. You'll get more followers in the process.
• Be human - As you assign ownership, be sure your followers know exactly who the person is who is maintaining your Twitter account.

Thanks Joe Pulizzi for sharing your thoughts!

Source: Amplifier Content Marketing (amplifiercontent.com)

Older Generations Do Join Social Networks / Facebook Facts

This is just a follow-up to a post back in March 2009 that was titled - "Survey and statistics show older women embracing social media". Well today on cnn.com there was an article regarding the same topic, but with more details. Here is a brief overview.

• Older generations use social networks to keep tabs on younger family members and they often find fruitful connections with their peers after they've friended all of their kids and grandkids.
• Only about 7 percent of people older than 65 have online social-networking profiles, according to research from the Pew Internet & American Life Project.
• There are now about 1.5 million female users older than 55 on the site, the group says -- roughly a 550 percent increase over six months ago.
• Older people often must overcome fears about privacy issues before they will join Facebook, Fogg-Phillips said. Once they do, they often find unexpected uses for the network.

Also, in the story was some interesting facts about Facebook.

• Facebook now says it has 200 million users, making its user base larger than the populations of all the world's countries except China, India, the United States and Indonesia.
• Facebook today has a global presence, with 70 percent of users living outside the U.S., the site says.

Like I said back in March a classic comment I always seem to hear is older generations do not get social media and would never embrace it. Well I am glad to say again that is not true.