The growing phenomenon of Internet

Here is a news report from 1993 explaining how anyone "connected anyone anywhere riding the same Internet circuit from Turkey, Greenland, Peru or Nova Scotia" can "sharing scientific data and passing on cooking tips". It's funny to think what people are saying the very same things about today.

This video - and many more that outdate the Internet, was found on the YouTube time Machine.

Libraries are the new Old Spice

The Old Spice guy, and even his excellent video responses to members of the public on Twitter (see below), are old news. How do we know that? Because a library has taken the ad and made it its own. You know, one of those houses where they keep old books that no one ever reads because of the Internet. So, if dorky libraries are going for the image revamp that tired old Old Spice has had, anything is possible. That's because we're all on the Internet, which is bad if you are a library.

<3 the piano dude guy on Chatroulette

This broke over the weekend, and means that no one actually has to go over to Chatroulette.com (for those with their heads in the sand, here's a write-up from the Guardian's Bobbie Johnson), because this is basically all you need to know. Next!

UPDATE: Now that the video above has been removed (not even Mashable knows exactly why) the baton has been passed to pianist/songwriter Ben Folds, who copied Merton 1's example by incorporating Chatroulette into a live performance. Here it is:

A Hunch about the future of social media

The wealth of user-generated content being posted to the web is just waiting to be harvested and put to new uses. Even the closed, old-media world of CNN is using Twitter as a quick way to gauge public opinion - rather than the (relatively) old system text messages and online polls. But technology can go much further than just playing with the results of Twitter searches including words like "good" and "bad" to generate data.

I first heard about Hunch some time ago when it was first launched, and it appears it has gained some traction since then. Despite being difficult to fathom at first, it appears to provide targeted user-generated advice with little or no direct interaction with actual other users. And because it sucks you in (in a good way), it might just work.

The site bases its results on a combination of user reviews and product data plus information on users gleaned from fun questions ranging from whether "you spoon or get spooned" in bed and the number of greeting cards you sent last year to whether you would bank with Google or vote liberal or conservative. Try it, it's fun.

And you can modify the results at any time by answering more questions about yourself, what you are looking for and stating your preferences. If you know about a subject, you can also add your comments and recommendations to other users - after all, it's nice to be helpful.

I tried searching for "bicycles" and received instant assistance not only in choosing the right type of bike, but also makes and models to fit my budget and preference. Football boots, the same, although the choice on offer is very limited. Hunch will even help you work out which (football or other) position is best for you. It's like those stupid questionnaires you get on Facebook, only far better.

The site is fun to browse around and the questions are engaging, but the proof of the pudding is when you are actually looking for useful information. Will it rival Google and Amazon, who revolutionised the web and e-commerce, through search and user comments respectively? I don't know, but I have a hunch... At the very least, it is a great example of how the web could work to engage users with your site.

Google Docs is great, but not for everything

I just watched this on the Google Docs login page and it made me laugh.

Charity Shelter uses Google Streetview to campaign for festive donations

I must admit, I feel guilty now that I have used housebling.co.uk to decorate my parent's house. Not because I didn't warn them before defacing their abode with gaudy neon decorations, but because I didn't leave Shelter a donation. Hats of to Shelter for a job well done, although the it's a shame the Google StreetView image used was taken in spring.

Advertisers move online as blogs, portals and aggregators threaten old media

Hot on the heels of news that television advertising spending in the UK has now been eclipsed by online ads, in the US, the Huffington Post, a link-and-blog-driven news source, recently overtook the Washington Post, a leading print newspaper, for unique visitors. According to editorandpublisher.com:

Yahoo, CNN and MSNBC still topped the chart, but in one surprising shift The Huffington Post surpassed Washingtonpost.com in unique users in the month of September, new data from Nielsen Online reveals.

The Huff Post was up 26% year-over-year to 9.4 million uniques, while uniques at the Washingtonpost.com dropped almost 30% to 9.2 million.

Meanwhile, the New York Times, which has experienced year-over-year declines in uniques for the past several months -- after Nielsen institute expanded panels -- is on the rise again. The site was up 7% to 21.5 million.

What's also interesting is the number of UK publications high up the list (scroll to the bottom of the linked article to see the top 30), with our favourites The Guardian, The Telegraph and The Daily Mail, all showing strongly. All three have worked hard to embrace the digital age, or at least put all of their content online, and that work appears to be paying off.