5. Lego Build

Infinite building possibilities from Lego and Google collaboration.

Back in the good old days of yore children whiled away their afternoons in idol play, lost in their imaginations with nothing but bed sheets, twigs and a muddy pit at the back of the house as props for their elaborate role-playing. Kings waged wars, empires fell and everyone had to get cleaned up before tea. Then came Lego and the shape of play changed forever, so much so that those little coloured blocks and weekend afternoons will be linked in my mind forever.

Fast-forward a couple of decades and Lego’s gone digital, offering fans the opportunity to rebuild the world (well, Australia for the time being) in its own blocky image. Build, a collaborative project between Lego Australia and Google Chrome, fuses WebGL, the very latest in in-browser graphics, and Google Maps to allow users the chance to build, share and even renovate their very own digital Lego structures on a global platform. Complete structures can then be shown off to friends and family via email or Google+.

This may not be the tactile experience we’ve come to expect from Lego but their commitment to pursuing projects on digital platforms is impressive for a product so naturally grounded in the physical world. The online Build experience also encourages the more social aspects of Lego play that long-time fans hold dear. Best of all however is the staggeringly awesome possibility of INFINITE BLOCKS, a literal impossibility in the physical world.

Eat that bed sheets and sticks.

www.buildwithchrome.com

http://www.northkingdom.com/

4. Slavery Footprint

MUH-TAY-ZIK | HOF-FER and Unit 9 London partner with Call + Response and the U.S. State Department to raise awareness about slavery today. The site, called "Made in a Free World" allows you track how many slaves work for you, based on how many where you live, items of clothing you have, what you eat, gadgets you own and so on.

An accompanying app lets consumers encourage brands to investigate how many slaves are used in their own supply chain operations. A geo-location element allows you to check-in to the app while you shop at these stores, and over a 1,000 Facebook pages will show how each store and brand is doing on the slavery front. Consumers that take the survey and work on encouraging brands to look into their practices will also win "Free World" points.

The global slave trade is estimated to be over 27 million people working in supply chains for global products to create products like iPhones, cameras and running shoes. Often, the campaign says, major brands aren't even aware of the slavery footprint present in their own supply chains.

Visit Slavery footprint HERE

8. Grain & Gram Website

The New Gentleman’s Journal is how Grain&Gram best describe what this site is about. Think of jobs that your Dad or Granddad might have done many years ago, like working as a blacksmith, carpenter, craftsman, tailor or printmaker.

Grain&Gram is essentially a magazine that delivers a rare insight into the lives of a select few chaps who make a living with skills passed on through generations. Each ‘dusty gent’ has a feature length interview, some bloody nice photographs of themselves looking proper and working in a shed/studio of some kind way out in a blazing hot forest somewhere in the USA.

This really is a beautiful site, with a very simple and clean colour palette, great little touches with icons and type, and overall great content that has all been thought out to really capture the scene of each gent.

Check out Grain & Gram Website HERE

8. byturen.com - Drunk Vs Mega Drunk

Bus company Movia, which runs a late night bus mostly for clubbers and party folk, tapped agency Bocca to create an interactive video. At first glance, everyone looks pretty and poised -- what you think you look like when you're drunk. But on mouse over, the video changes to what you really look and act like with a few under the table.

Check out the website HERE

10. Advertising, YouTube and 12 videos to prove the experience

Advertising is everywhere: on the TV, on the radio, on websites. But when you approach one of the biggest video communitys and break the rules, things get interesting. Advertising on YouTube promises interaction and experience, two things that really makes you wonder what’s going on. As you will see in the following 12 YouTube videos, how different brands chose to approach their audience.

Everyone knows YouTube, the biggest online community, where you can upload and watch videos. The big screen on the middle of the page, the right sidebar from where you ca chose different videos, and design that viewers have gotten used to. But there are some that break the rules. When you are a brand and 80% of your market is on YouTube, what do you do to get their attention? Nothing easier, you break the rules! You surprise them!
This collection represents 12 entitys that chose to break the rules to create a beautiful experience, by taking advantage of the YouTube platform and developing mind blowing awesomeness, under the form of advertising.

See them all at wabbaly

1. 'Rome' Project: A Chrome Interactive Video

Daniele Luppi & Danger Mouse's Rome collaboration project arrives next week, and to stir enthusiasm the duo have offered fans the power of flight via the Google Chrome-interactive "Three Dreams of Black" video, featuring Norah Jones. 

 

The awesome interactive film (check it out here - use Chrome!), which allows the user to infect the city with a blast of nature and beyond before taking flight over an Easter-egg-filled desertscape, brings together much of the team behind the remarkable Google/Arcade Fire HTML5 project from last August to test out the possibilities of WebGL, a new technology for the browser.

 

According to Ro.Me, “WebGL is a context of the HTML5 canvas element that enables hardware-accelerated 3D graphics in the web browser without a plug-in. In other words, it enables your browser to show some really beautiful visuals.”

 

The site also features a model viewer that allows users to take part in the demo mode testing of various characters featured in the video. The site explains further: “On this page, you’ll find a WebGL model viewer featuring several of the “3 Dreams of Black” creatures. You’ll also find 8 demos created by our development team, a link to the code base, and some links to resources on the web that will be useful for getting started in WebGL programming.”

 

Love that apocalyptic cityscape in the beginning. Interesting Mario 1up mushroom and Reddit nod towards the end, as well as recent updates including Megaman and many other gaming notables. There’s plenty of little hidden gems for you to explore and find at the end of the video (even a flying city?):

(Stolen) 

Go to Rome HERE

7. Vincent Morisset - Web

Visit site HERE

8. Pica Pic - Handheld Games

Brace yourself. You're about to be guided to the best website in the history of the universe, and if you dare doubt it, your universe may very well be ripped to shreds. Every so often, a new and improved reason for surviving emerges on the world wide web, and it's safe to say that Pica-Pic fits the bill. For all intents and purposes, it's a drop-dead gorgeous portal for accessing retro handheld games -- the very vessels that carried you through your childhood. Simply toggle through the myriad options with your left / right arrow keys, and then mouse over each game to learn of the keyboard controls. Venture on down to the source link if you're looking to occupy yourself for the next week month. Now, if only they'd build an app for porting this to the mobile side...

Spend your Friday HERE
Made by Hipopotam Studio

8. Red Bull Street Art View

There has been a big buzz lately about Google Art Project, a tool that provides its users with virtual tours through some of the finest museums in the world. Different kinds of masterpieces, however, have long conquered the public space in the form of street art.
It did not take long for the Brazilian advertising agency Loducca to realize that and bring together Google inspiration and the power of social production in favor of Red Bull’s distinguished communication. Red Bull Street Art View, a mashup with Google Street View that allows people to tag their favorite street art pieces around the globe – and share them with other viewers.
Artwork is searchable by location or author, and while locations are still (of course) restricted to those places where Google’s cameras have circulated, Street Art View’s goal to be “the biggest art collection in the world” seems quite achievable. After just a few days on the air, the platform has already more than 200 walls tagged in various countries, including names such as Keith Haring, Os Gêmeos and Banksy.

7. Google Art Project

Explore museums from around the world, discover and view hundreds of artworks at incredible zoom levels, and even create and share your own collection of masterpieces.

Check it out HERE

10. IFTTT

ifttt: The startup with the crazy name aims to automate the Internet  Have you ever wished that you could call in status updates to Facebook? How about getting an SMS notification when something you have been looking for posts to Craigslist? Want to post a Tweet every time that someone uploads a picture to a specific gallery on Flickr? You can do that as well. You can even daisy-chain tasks together to create a slew of actions from a single trigger.

All of these things, and more, can happen via an interesting site called ifttt.com — if this, then that. The site is set up to allow you to create different triggers that correspond to actions. For instance, let’s say that you’re bookmarking things via Delicious.

What’s most compelling about ifttt is the power that it holds. What’s most impressive, though is how easy it really is to use. I have a couple of tasks set up already and following the process is amazingly simple. You litterally click “this” in a statement of “if this happens”, then you click “that” in another statement. You can customize the variables to many of them, but what you’re left with is a hugely powerful system of automation.

I’d love to say that I’ve really dug into the service, but I’m afraid that I haven’t even scratched the surface of what it can do. However, here’s a quick video that will walk you through and show you how everything’s set up. Simplicity at its finest, really:


For now, the service is in a private beta. But not to leave you hanging, the ifttt team has been nice enough to provide me with 50 invitations that I can hand out at will. So, leave us a comment. Tell us what you’d like to do with ifttt. We’ll pick the best ones and toss an invitation your way. Oh, and you’ll likely get bonus points if you tweet this.  Just sayin’.  Oh, and a word of forewarning: If you’re outside of the US, the SMS functions won’t work just yet. The team is trying to get that sorted, but just be aware.

Visit Website: http://ifttt.com/

(stolen from: http://thenextweb.com )

5. Sour Mirror

 

Japanese band creates browser-based music vid fuelled by social media

Following up on the viral succes of their 2009 song 'Hibi no neiro', Japanese band Sour have created a browser-based music video fuelled by the viewer's social media feeds.

The band's new song 'Mirror' is showcased through a site (ideally viewed in Chrome or Safari) which first asks visitors to connect using Twitter, Facebook or their webcam.  Once connected, the site pulls in content from the visitor's accounts to create a bespoke music video popped into life by an array of browser windows.

The site was created by Wieden+Kennedy's New York's creative director, Masashi Kawamura, who shared directing credits with Qanta Shimizu and Saqoosha, but the video was financed independently by $5k worth of donations through funding-platform website Kickstarter.

Although clearly reminiscent of Arcade Fire's The Wilderness Downtown, the $5k price tag has already earned Sour thousands of mentions on social media and news sites around the world - undoubtedly a greater reach than the average video for a Japanese-language pop song.
http://sour-mirror.jp/

3. Pentagram - What type are you?

Pentagram offers this fun interactive microsite to figure out which typeface best represents you. The password is "character".

Visit website HERE

Visit Pentagram HERE

10. Sneakerpedia

The greatest sneaker archiving project is about to start.
Follow the project on Twitter: twitter.com/​sneakerpedia

9. Turn Tube List

Cross-fade YouTube videos and create video playlists.
Check it out HERE

7. Tabio Slide Show

Tabio Slide Show is a content you can enjoy by "sliding", 
just like you would slide along the floor in socks, 
an experience that most people have relished at least once.

Check out the site HERE

6. shuffler.fm

About:
Shuffler aggregates music from around the web by genre.
So if you go to our home page you will see a list of channels. They are like radio channels but divided by genre.
When you click on a channel we send you to a blog post and start playing one of the songs mentioned on that post.
If you don't like it you can skip ahead or pick another channel from the shuffler bar on the top of the page.
When the song ends, we send you to the next song on the next blog. Always on the same genre.


How:
We aggregate music posted on a (more or less) curated list of blogs.
Every time something new pops up on a RSS feed from one of these blogs we find out what music the blogger is talking about on that post and then ask last.fm for some genres for that song.
We get some genres back, do some filtering and file the songs on the genre channels.
The channels are ordered by post time. So you will always get the freshest new hip song first.
We try to do some magic to make the channels more interesting: We avoid to play the same song twice and we always go to a new blog.
That's it!

Hey! I got a music blog:
Respect, brother.
We are here to promote your site. Spread your ideas and the music you love.
We do that by showing your posts in full colors and emotions.
Not sure if you are on the list? Shoot us an email at we@tone.fm.

Check out Shuffler HERE

10. The Wilderness Downtown

It's about time that someone created a film that enhanced your watching-videos-at-work experience.
Chris Milk's The Wilderness Downtown is more than just a music video for the Arcade Fire's "We Used to Wait." The HTML 5 project -- which can only be viewed on Google Chrome --  turns your whole computer screen into an interactive project using a series of pop up windows.
Using Google Maps technology, the music video takes you through your childhood neighborhood as you (or at least a hooded individual that is supposed to be you) run through the streets. It even allows you to write yourself a letter containing what you wish you knew as a lad or lass.
Are interactive videos the new 3D technology for online clips? It's too early to tell. Admittedly it's creepy that Google can easily find where you live, but The Wilderness Downtown is entertaining to view. Now, if only they could make interactive Choose Your Own Adventure streaming videos...

Find out more about this interactive web video at chromeexperiments.com

4. Dragontape

 Dragontape lets you make a 3 hour mixtape of your favorite YouTube videos.

The Details
In a world where everybody can be an iPod DJ, there are very few ways to set yourself apart. Dragontape will takes the “everyone’s a DJ” idea and goes a step further by allowing you to create mixtapes of your favorite YouTube videos.

While Dragontape is, essentially, a playlist editor for YouTube it does have a few other great features. A drag and drop interface will let you cut out parts of videos that you don’t want to see, layering in others instead.

Beyond that, once you’ve completed your Dragontape, it gets its own unique URL that you can share with others. Unless a video happens to be deleted, your Dragontape will stay around forever.
While there are still quite a few features that are notably missing, Dragontape assures us that they’re in the works. Soon, the site will ad the following:

• HTML5 player
• Vimeo, Dailymotion and MetaCafe integration
• Fullscreen playback
• Trimming/Cropping of videos
• Embeddable player

For now, it’s still a fun service to use and there are some interesting tapes that have already been made. Head over, drag in some clips and tell us what you think.

Check it out HERE

6. Pilot Handwriting

Write by hand on your computer!
Go to www.pilothandwriting.com, turn your handwriting into a digital font and send handwritten e-mails to your friends.