Boutiques.com – Visual power has penetrated the fashion realm and now online apparel shopping  is more accurate and individualized than ever. Take Boutiques.com for example, brought to us by Google, which “lets you find and discover fashion goods through a collection of boutiques curated by taste-makers — celebrities, stylists, designers, and fashion bloggers.” This ‘make-it-your-own’ apparel store uses visual technology that ‘learns’ your taste and style, and offers specific items that you, the users, will likely appreciate and hopefully purchase.

How does Boutiques learn what your style is, and what items to offer you accordingly? Click the Create Your Boutique button on the upper right corner, and start selecting your best outfits out of the ones the system offers you (actual celebrities’ styles). I did this for about 5 minutes, and Boutiques.com informed me my style is ‘casual chic.’

To finish off your own Boutique and have ‘it’s all you’ item recommendations, you will need to go through five more steps, but these are filled with fun and glamor you will enjoy every second of it. These include choosing your favorite (and least favorite) silhouettes, colors and patterns for a variety of clothing categories, and when you’re done, you go to your ‘Storefront’ and check out a huge catalog of clothing and accessories all suiting your personal style. Plus, you can follow other users who have created their storefront, and others can follow you for some added inspiration. I totally understand why Google bought this company. They KNOW style!

Can you draw the Internet? – Who do you think has a greater chance of creatively showing what the Internet represents – a talented graphic designer or a 10 year-old kid who has never known a world without computers and the Internet? This intriguing project by Saint (London) brought out some amazing creative metaphors children have in their mind about what the Internet means for them.

The result? It will blow you away. Here’s a screen shot of the project’s homepage. Explore the unexpected and mind-blowing interpretations, and vote for your favorites!

Brain Pickings – One of the two winning Weekly Blogs, Maria Popova’s Brain Pickings is a sophisticated venue of intelligence and bite-size horizon enhancers, offering a regularly updated collection of “curated bits of culture that will, at the very least, introduce you to new ideas and perspectives and, at their very best, help you think more, laugh more, create more.”

Brain Pickings is all about enticing your neurons by providing you with well written posts covering out of the box cultural ideas and art projects, among others. Read the fascinating post about the Sounds of HIV as an example (the player below was included in the post, playing those mysterious Sounds of HIV).

Influencers – A most inspiring and thought-provoking project, Influencers is a short documentary film by David Johnson and Paul Rojanathara, focusing on the factors that create fads and trends. The film was shot in New York City, featuring different professionals from the creative field who share their opinion on what or who is an influencer or trendsetter. The creative agency R+I Creative came up with the concept of this amazing short.

The film is in HD quality and the post-production editing made it especially powerful and captivating. The film is less than 14 minutes long, but the inspiration you draw from it will be long lasting. And don’t forget: ideas spread just like viruses do!

Amazing Pics – This tumblr page belongs to an anonymous user who has the ability to identify pictures that speak much louder than words. A former Weekly Blog, this one’s a winner and it got the most clicks out of the entire lineup that week.

Each picture is pouring with drama and interest such as the one below which appeared on Gizmodo:

Everything Mom – Being a mom who juggles family and work can be quite a challenge, even if there’s a caring husband or partner to help out whenever possible. First-time moms in particular can find the entire situation daunting, which is why Everything Mom is a delightful blessing.

According to their About Us page, Everything Mom has created “a place for busy moms to kick back for a few minutes, communicate, share and learn. Empowering and inspiring moms to be the happiest they can be while nurturing their families and selves.” Everything Mom truly is a comprehensive source for everything related to womanhood and motherhood. It’s a fun and inviting environment for mothers across the nation to interact, share and draw self empowerment. Get information on meal plans, pregnancy and ovulation, download useful printables for house (and kids) organization, and make use of many other resources. My favorite feature is creating your own listing on the site for free!

More Intelligent Life – This quarterly magazine from The Economist “covers the arts, style, food, wine, cars, travel and anything else under the sun, as long as it’s interesting.” More Intelligent Life offers sophisticated and interesting content on just about any lifestyle topic you can think of. The magazine’s excellent writing, cleverly coupled with engaging photos and visuals, is like a tender filet mignon, perfectly matched with the right red wine.

Although I’m certain the More Intelligent Life’s printed edition delivers the full extent of the magazine’s experience, the website does not fall short from offering an enjoyable and insightful read. Browse the site’s main categories (ideas, lifestyle, arts, places), or visit the blog for more intriguing reviews and essays on varying cultural topics. I recommend starting out with the interesting article “OMG, ETC” by Robert Lane Greene on our heavy use of acronyms. Clicking on the illustration below (by Richard Rockwood) will direct you to the article’s page.

Google Demo Slam – Here’s yet another proof that Google is so different from any other corporate in history; they created an amazing platform for all the people around the world who want to show how creative they can get with using Google products. Each week, the Google Demo Slam will display two videos of individuals and groups of people who took a Google product or service to the next level. Users watch the two videos, choose the best one, and these votes determine the winner of that week’s demo slam.

This week both videos are creative and inspiring, but only one will be the winner. My personal favorite is shown below. Create your own Demo Slam with your friends, and maybe you will make it to the slam as well!

It Gets Better – This heart-warming and inspiring project founded by Dan Savage beautifully explains its mission on the top of its homepage: “Many LGBT youth can’t picture what their lives might be like as openly gay adults. They can’t imagine a future for themselves. So let’s show them what our lives are like, let’s show them what the future may hold in store for them.”

It Gets Better is a godsend haven for young lesbians, gays, bi-sexuals and transgenders who struggle to get the support and acceptance from their social environment, often from their own families. Although many Americans find it hard to acknowledge it, America is not yet liberal enough to accept its LGBT community, which makes the It Gets Better Project all the more crucial today. It is where openly gay adults happily share their own coming out experiences, as well as the hardships they have encountered and still encounter along the way. The take home message here lies in the Project’s title: It Gets Better! May it give power and strength to all the young LGBT out there!

The video below of True from the Seattle Quake is one particularly compelling story I wanted to share.

AMDM – This amazing Adobe Museum of Digital Media is a whimsical cyberspace presenting “the good the bad and the ugly”  of how we explore digital media, and in turn, how it influences our society in this day and age.  Describing the AMDM in words would be futile. Therefore, I invite you to dive in, see the museum’s curator Tom Eccles’ introduction to this space, and start exploring the museum’s first exhibition “Valley” (second screen shot below).

Baby Name Wizard – When a new baby is on the way, naming him or her can be a daunting task; you want the name to have a deeper meaning, to make an impression, to reflect a noticeable quality or family tradition. If you are seeking for a little bit of creativity and inspiration than merely relying on the names of deceased relatives, Baby Name Wizard is here.

The Baby Name Wizard offers a comprehensive source for everything related to baby naming. You can simply search for names alphabetically, but I suggest digging deeper into the site; explore the NameVoyager, a colossal graphed database of the history and popularity of thousands of names (see screen shot below); check out the Namipedia, a name encyclopedia, and my favorite; the NameMapper, showing names’ popularity by state and year. Look at the lower screen shot for an example, using my favorite name for girls, Mia.

The Baby Name Wizard truly is a great resource to consult if you’re expecting a child. It sure makes things much easier and gives you one less thing to stress about.

One Hello World – “Leave me a voicemail and I’ll write music behind your narrative. Call it a soundtrack to your thoughts” -That is the gist of One Hello World. Sounds weird? I thought so, too, at first, but the experience super-exceeded my expectations.

The combination of a stranger’s voice and melody immediately wraps it all up in a dramatic and poignant atmosphere. It’s quite an experience. Explore this particular recording: “Life Just Kind of Happens,” to get a taste of One Hello World. To submit your own voicemail, read the Submit page, or call (316) 247-0421 and, as requested, “be real.”