Hahahaha.fr – Embark on a noisy, exciting and above all, funny experience of mixing a variety of human laughs. This French site takes laughter and smiles to the extreme by matching keyboard buttons with laughs. Try it out for yourself. My personal favorite? Press B once all the faces load on the page.
Red Bull Street Art View – Another fantastic manipulation of Google Street View, the Red Bull Street Art View takes you to the otherwise hidden gems of street art and graffiti all over the world. Start with the ‘world map’ view (see below) and click on any red circle to zoom in to an area with a variety of street artworks.
Here’s an amazing Street View picture of a wall graffiti in Mexico City, Mexico:
Don’t see your city here int his art project? Add a street art work of your town!
Pogo Swing – A little nostalgia goes a long way, literally; swing back and forth using the arrow keys, and when you think you’re ready to jump. press the space bar and see how how and how far you can land (or crash).
This game is definitely one of the more addicting ones out there! For more fun games check out All My Faves’ I Luv Games page and get the best of the online games world.
The following is a guest post I wrote on behalf of All My Faves for Synapses, an insightful blog by the lovely Dan Fonseca.
In recent years, as the World Wide Web became mankind’s main communication channel, there has been an interesting shift in the predominance of textual content. More specifically, textual content in mainstream media has been increasingly gravitating towards a more visualized direction. This is not to say textual content or words are a dying breed. Rather, the visual evolution of content -in the form of animated videos, interactive maps and infographics- is emerging primarily in circumstances where complicated knowledge or data need to be understood in a fast and clear manner.
Below I will present several examples of recent visual content forms on the Web, showing how graphic based information achieves immediate understanding and internalization of ideas and processes. These exclude common practical iconizations used for daily routine efficiencies (signs, conventional maps, etc).
1. Visualizing Bloodtests
This example is a knock-out in terms of both aesthetics and functionality. Created by the talented team over at Information is Beautiful, Visualizing Bloodtests is the ultimate data-into-info example, and there’s no wonder why this visualization scored the 1st place in Wired Mag’s re-envisioning medical data design competition.
The original piece of content is a standard bloodtest data document. Doctors can make out what it means, but what about the patient whose blood was tested? It’s virtually impossible to comprehend what’s going on there, and this concerns someones’ life!
Now see the magic of infographics (thanks to Information is Beautiful), turning the incomprehensible document above into an easy to digest content:
2. GapMinder World’s Health & Wealth of Nations Interactive Graph
This interactive graph was created by GapMinder so as to “unveil the beauty of statistical time series by converting boring numbers into enjoyable, animated and interactive graphics.” The Health & Wealth of Nations shows the changes in humanity’s lifespan and lifetime earnings over time, starting in 1800. It’s an amazing visualization that takes dry numbers of data and turns them into an engaging presentation that laypersons like you and me can understand easily. By the way, GapMinder’s software Trendalyzer is so amazing that Google acquired it in 2007.
Click the screen shot below to go to the interactive graph’s page and hit Play.
3. Web Search – AllMyFaves.com
What does the phrase ‘Web search’ make you think of? Probably Google, right? There’s no doubt the search giant is excellent at what it does, and its efficient search algorithms had enabled the company to enter an already inundated Web search market back in 2000 and take it by storm. However, at the end of the day Google’s search service, however sophisticated it may be, is based on word indexes. You must type in key words to find what you are looking for, and then you must read each result entry to identify its relevancy to your search. The byproduct of this process is what has come to be known as “search fatigue.” Another byproduct is spam and malware hot spots, disguised as credible search results.
AllMyFaves.com has identified the shortcomings of standard Web search and offers an innovative alternative: icon-based gateway to Web navigation and site discovery. The AllMyFaves.com homepage lists all the most popular and practical categories relevant to most users, and each category displays the top 10 websites of that field in the form of the site or company’s logo. Based on the same premise of the infogrpahic, allmyfaves.com delivers quick access to information and services provided by familiar sources and brands, immediately recognizable by their logos.
In addition to the homepage you will also find AllMyFaves’ designated pages for Blogs, Business, Education, Entertainment, Games, Kids, Shopping and Travel. AllMyFaves’ recent tool, the Mini Faves, is a personalization tool inviting users to create their very own visual homepage that includes all of their bookmarks and favorites. Here’s my personal Mini Faves page as an example.
If you would like to create your own Mini Faves page and have all your bookmarks and favorites in one easy page, join AllMyFaves now.
To wrap things up, I think you will agree; visual information is taking a strong hold over the Web and for a good reason. In an era when information flows to and fro at incredible speed, we are bombarded with RSS feeds, news articles, emails and many other content forms on a daily basis. Thanks to visual aids such as infographics, interactive graphs and many other forms of content with a visual approach, making sense of the world just got a whole lot easier.
*Recommended links and sources: Cool Infographics, AllMyFaves.com, Infographics Mini page,
“Conventional Data is Boring. Make Way for the Infographic,” AllMyFaves Blog. Jan 20, 2011.
LivingSocial – Groupon is probably one of the most talked about websites this year, and for a good reason. The group deals niche is growing at an exponential rate, and keeps drawing more and more participants as time goes by. LivingSocial is another promising Groupon-like site that aims to offer rewarding deals in American, Canadian, even Australian cities, while boosting local businesses.
Sign up by providing your email address and picking your city, and get a daily offer of something cool to do in your city. What I like about LivingSocial is their Escapes feature, which offers affordable weekend getaways and short vacations across the US and Canada. I’m already subscribed. What are you waiting for?
BookLending – Love your Kindle? I bet you love reading then. If you do, BookLending is for you. Explore the ebook borrowing and lending service at BookLending (by Amazon), which matches those willing to lend purchased titles to those looking for fresh reads and vice versa.
Sign up to BookLending, and once you get our own profile page you can review, make and offer loans from there. To lend a book, click on the big green button (see above) and the intuitive BookLending system will direct you how to proceed. By the way, you don’t necessarily have to own a Kindle to receive a book loan. You can use this service with your PC, Mac, iPhone, Blackberry and other devices as well. For more info on how BookLending works and how to use it, go to the FAQ page.
UJAM– This innovative website is essentially a “new technology platform which everyone can use to compose, produce, and publish their own music. Share your musical creativity with your friends and music fans around the world!”
Making use of UJAM’s full list of features would take a pro, it seems, but if you’re into music, this is definitely the place for you to practice your DJ and composing talent. As much as I would have liked to create a cool jam, my efforts came out disappointing, to say the least. But I’m sure you could do much better. After you log in, start with the Getting Started section and then proceed to the Application – where the magic happens.
World Travel Guide – Offering “inspirational destination guides, features, travel deals, events and more,” World Travel Guide tries to take the travel world by storm. What do I think? After a short test drive using the search word ‘Barcelona,’ I can’t really say this travel guide is better or worse than the top ones out there. I would say it’s average. You will find all the practical info you need for your destination, but you won’t find anything that’s ‘Wow!’
To be honest, I feel AMF’s Travel Guides faveline on the Travel page offers resources that are more useful and appealing.
SPENT – Take the ultimate challenge of making it through the month with the little that you have left. SPENT is a compelling game (so to speak) on what it means to be one of the people Urban Ministries of Durham helps out. I won’t spoil it for you, but I will say that the experience is as real as it gets. Check it out and share with friends. I couldn’t last more than 10 days. What about you?
Loviu – This innovative T-Shirts store offers users – designers and simple T-shirt wearers alike- the chance to actively influence what people are wearing: “now you have a chance to decide what people will wear tomorrow and make some nice cash along the way.”
Aside from voting for tee designs you love (highest scoring designs result in some serious Euro cash for winning designers!) and submitting your own design, you can earn sweet cash by allowing Loviu to advertise the daily tee on your Facebook profile page.
Here are a couple of designs I immediately craved for myself, but sadly shopping is no longer possible; you can only vote for these:
Don’t Even Reply – Another Weekly Blog winner, Don’t Even Reply is about emails that are so rude and absurd they’re down right hilarious. Want an example? See the one below. To submit your own case of a ludicrous email, simply publish it in the classifieds section of a major US newspaper and the anonymous Don’t Even Reply blogger will find it and publish it. Please be advised that this site contains curse words and some might find the language here inappropriate.
Posted at: 2009-06-09 02:00:01
Original ad:
litter of 6 kittens up for adoption! they are all 3 weeks old and are looking for a good home. contact if interested.
From Mike Hunt to *********@***********.org
Hi,
I am interested in taking all six kittens off of your hands. How much do you want for them?
Mike
From Shannon ******* to Me
Mike,
Are you going to take care of all of these kittens? I want to make sure they all find a good home, and was expecting to sell them one at a time. Are you able to house all six of them?
From Mike Hunt to Shannon *******
Shannon,
To be honest, I own a pet Bengal Tiger and he is on a strict diet of cats. I usually feed him one cat every couple of days, so this litter should hold him over for a while. Don’t worry though, I’ll take good care of the kittens until I feed them to him.
Mike
From Shannon ******* to Me
That is horrible! You will not get a single kitten from me. I really hope you are not serious.
From Mike Hunt to Shannon *******
Shannon,
I was kidding. I seriously need all six kittens though. Disregard anything I said about a tiger.
From Shannon ******* to Me
NO.
Design Milk – This cool design website is one of our favorites, and is part of our Design MiniFaves page for ages now. Last week it was included in our Weekly Blogs lineup and it scored lots of user attention, therefore it made it to this week’s Weekly Faves.
Design Milk is a comprehensive resource of design in practically every possible industry: Architecture, art, furniture, interior design, style & fashion, even technology. In addition, Design Milk is committed to present the latest news on design which, combined with its beautiful look and feel, constitutes a top choice design website filled with ideas and inspirations. Here are a couple of posts I enjoyed reading -click the images to read them.
If you’re still craving for more, check out the world of design in the canine kingdom – Dog Milk.