Tweet of the Week

Project Virgle was an April Fools joke but Sir Richard is discussing Google/Virgin collaborations with humor.

Facial Recognition Software Turns Shoppers into Na’vi Avatars – MarketingVOX

I really like how they’ve taken an idea that could have easily been applied to an app, and placed it in the middle of one of the busiest malls in LA. I’d guess there are crowds around this checking it out. Then to link that to a database acquisition is icing on the cake.

Create Super Customized Dress Shirts with Blank Label

I’m impressed by how H&M can get take fashion trends from the street to their shelves in 6 weeks. But this might even circumvent that speed to market.

Google Buzz Hits Google Maps; Search Suggest Comes To More Countries

With all the ‘buzz’ about Facebook, Foursquare, Apple and Twitter, I’ve almost forgotten about that little company Google. At any rate, this is a pretty good UX, really only limited by first, a lack of quantity, and then, a way to filter. But the combination of logins in an environment as practical and comprehensive as Google Maps has obvious big potential. Especially for mobile.

Hospital Outfits Staff with 100 iPads

What really impresses me about the iPad is the distinct benefits we’re already seeing coming from it. Game changing for businesses and people alike. Here’s another good story about how the iPad has enabled a 99 year old woman to start reading again with the text enlarging feature (yeah, that was dooable in most browsers, but not really practical). http://mashable.com/2010/04/23/ipad-99-year-old-woman/

How Does One Compete With This Beast? Here’s How: | Stay N’ Alive

A developer (who also happens to be a good writer) gives his take on the impact of Facebook’s latest announcement around global connect, and what the next evolution of the Web might be beyond that.

On Google’s Brand – John Battelle’s Searchblog

John has literally written the book on Google, so always interesting to hear his thoughts. And given he’s been a big proponent of the Google way, his sense that Google is meeting a critical point in their history is clear.

Ajaxian » Blowing up HTML5 video

The Apple – Adobe brawl over Flash is looking like a bantam-weight fight compared to the Facebook – Google square off. But if you’re in content development, it’ll probably factor into some of your decisions over the next few years. What’s interesting to me about this is the text at the top of the page remains searchable HTML text, while the video is able to expand right over that text. Keep in mind that the big problem with Flash for many people is it’s relative invisibility to search engines. That, and this would enable all sorts of expandable banner ideas, possibly without requiring rich media apps and their related ad serving fees.

NYT: Twitter Gets More Features, and Competitors

If you had any doubts about Twitter’s continuing popularity, they’re adding 300,000 new users a day. Remarkable. Their new service, titled “@ anywhere”, will integrate location-based services to Twitter as well as a database of nearby places, for which you can then view a feed to Tweets coming from that specific location. Pretty remarkable stuff for finding out what’s going on wherever you are.

Facebook Looks to Extend Its Presence – NYTimes.com

Interesting to note that Facebook using Connect to spread their presence across other websites is very similar to a tactic Google used a decade ago, when they syndicated their search box to other sites around the web, and then followed by doing the same with their advertising system. Facebook is also changing their “Share” button to “Like”, although the real story is they’ll be tracking the things you “like” and you’ll be able to see things across the web that were “liked” but your friends. As we already know that seeing what your friends like is a big draw, this is a great idea. Here’s Facebook’s own page explaining this in a very simple graphic: http://www.facebook.com/sitetour/connect.php

How Facebook won the web – CNN.com

Mashable’s Pete Cashmore weighs on on why Facebook is a serious threat to both Google and Twitter, with the implication that the best solution for those two would be for Google to buy Twitter.