Is social media polluting the web?

2008 and 2009 have been incredible years in terms of social media evolution. Twitter is just one of the numerous examples that show how people need to feel more present and connected on the web.

What started as a micro-blogging website in order to show other people what's on your mind -a bit like the Facebook status- has now become an amazing way to share links, pictures or any other type of content on the web. In fact, I don't know many people who actually use Twitter to say "I just made a warm soup, it's nice" or "It's sunny outside, might go for a walk".


I myself started using Twitter so that my friends and family back in France could read some sort of "flash news" about what I was doing. I didn't have the time to send out emails all the time so I thought this was a cool way to share this. But with time and with my number of followers growing, I didn't feel like sharing these things anymore and started using Twitter in a totally different way.
Now, and like 90% of the people I follow, simply send out links of my findings on the Internet: interesting articles, funny videos, my thoughts on some topic, etc...

Sites such as Digg, delicious, stumbleupon and so on are great for this matter. It also helps people index their site pages, UGC or blog articles and drive targeted traffic to their website.
A website who does not contain small links for its readers to share the content is a (huge) mistake in 2009 where everything happens online and in real time. If you want to be out there, then help the buzz create itself naturally. It sure will if your content is valuable.

As you can see below this article, I have a little sharethis button which lets anyone share this article if they want to. There's also a digg and retweet buttons at the top left corner of the article. I haven't really included this for personal branding reasons but I want to offer my readers a good, simple and easy way to share the article if ever they believe it's worth it. I use those quite often on other websites and let authors of interesting content get the credit they deserve, when they're worth it.

However, I was very surprised at the number of social media bookmarks/sharing websites...
One of the best examples could be the addtoany. This button which I included just after this paragraph, looks just like the sharethis one I am using already. The only difference is that it offers, well... quite a few extra sites! Yes, you're not dreaming, that's a total of 123 websites plus email and browser bookmark..! (There's even a search bar on the widget in order to find the site you may be looking for...)


I personally don't know half those sites and yet, I consider myself pretty "aware" of what's available out there!So, do people need that many? Is there enough space for these hundreds of websites or only a few have any promising future?
I am really wandering if that's not just the trend of the moment. But I'm afraid this "social" dimension of the web is slowly starting to become polluted. Too many is sometimes too much!

I guess we'll just have to wait and see how all this will naturally evolve but as far as I'm concerned, I'm sticking to only a few popular ones.
If you have any thoughts about all this, please share! Read the full post

How smaller can we get?

The video below compares the different scales of some of the planets and stars surrounding us in the universe. Interesting, amazing but also scary, it really will make some of us think twice about our very own existence and goal.
Now I don't mean to freak any of you out but our missions to the Moon and Mars may seem like only the beginning of a very long journey!

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Coca Cola and The Open Happiness factory

Coca Cola has been known for their original ads. Everyone remembers their TV ad ressembling the famous and successful video game GTA (you can view this ad at the very bottom of this article). The soda company had already started advertising on the theme of happiness via this video and has now made it its global code line.

After announcing the Happiness Factory movie coming soon, Coca Cola has launch a series of ads around the world as well as music videos meant to become summer hits in Western Europe and the USA. With the help of several artists such as Cee-lo Green, Brendon Urie (from Panic at the Disco), Patrick Stump (from Fall out boys) among others, this Open Happiness Project is meant to be a hit.

I like some of these ads but not the Open Happiness Project music video.

What do you think?

Coca Cola - Yeah yeah yeah



Some Open Happiness ad



Open Happiness Project (music video)
the one I don't like



GTA-like Coca Cola ad

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Great animation videos from Tomek Baginski

Tomek Bagiński is a Polish artist and animator who has produced several beautiful computer generated videos. Several years ago, I have discovered his work through his award winning short film Fallen art and Oscar nominated short movie The Cathedral. This last video had struck me by its quality (don't forget it was made in 2002!).
He has also worked on the game cinematics of The Witcher which according to my previous flatmate (Polish as well!), is great in terms of graphics. You can view the two short films below, as well as a 3rd one entitled Undo made by Marcin Wasko. The two artists may have worked together on previous projects but my inexistant skills in Polish made it impossible for me to understand their biography and past work so I apologise if I misinformed you!

Fallen art (2004)


The Cathedral (2002)

Undo
by Marcin Wasko

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Some of my favorite TV ads - Part 1

Here's a selection of some of my favorite TV ads, regardless of how old they are. You've probably seen most of these videos before but it's always a pleasure to watch some of them again, especially if you've got some time to kill on your rainy Sunday afternoon...

Charal (French meat brand)



Discovery Channel



Toyota



Cadbury



Cadbury



Bud light



Ariston



Fox Sports



Soesman language training

Zazoo condoms

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The Hyde Tube, or how to sell your video

The Hyde Tube is a great place to spend some quality time. The name, of course, reminds us of Youtube and this is for the simple reason that it gathers a great collection of short movies, artistic clips, viral videos or just advertisements.

The concept is interesting: Film makers which are mostly amateurs, submit their videos as an idea, project or concept to the site. Then one of the film directors from the Mr. Hyde agency reviews it and if interested, goes further in developing the project.

This is what describes the concept on the website: "The commercials you will discover have all been directed by directors who had never made commercials before. You will note quality is present. Our directors are not beginners, they have all made one or more very good short film.

With the advice of Hervé Lopez, former Art Director at TBWA Paris, they are able to adapt rapidly to commissionned work."

There is also a user guide for both the directors and the clients on the website for further information. The agency is present in Paris, London and New York.

The videos are all viewable (for free of course) here.
You can also learn more about the Mr. Hyde agency on their website.

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The history of the Internet - Video animation

Internet has become part of our everyday life. Most of us now working in an office use a computer for most of our tasks, and often connected to the Internet. During our time off, we like to surf on the web, communicate, read articles, watch videos, share content and so on.

But do most of you actually know how the Internet appeared? Or how it evolved from military or scientific purposes to the #1 means of entertainement and hobby? It's been only a few years and yet, it's now everywhere. The animation below will answer these questions!

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