Web & Technology

You may remember the first time you saw Hampster Dance or Peanut Butter Jelly Time, but this site visually charts over a hundred internet memes into a timeline, list, flipbook or map. Each meme is given a short description and a link to the original site if it’s still around. It is a collaborative effort run through Dipity.

Noticing that there were no standard protocols for communicating between mobile phones and desktop computers, Heysan! is a mobile web based service that enables people to use any Instant Messaging service to chat through their mobile device. The service is not only free, but works with any phone and on any network.

Gustaf discusses some of the popular devices amongst their young, urban users that are typically overlooked by the mobile industry and explains the unique relationship this audience has with the mobile web.

Heysan!

Joe Gebbia is the Co-Founder of AirBed & Breakfast, a new way of traveling that allows people to book rooms with locals to get a truly local experience. Travelers simply log onto the site and peruse the profiles of locals. Hosts provide descriptions of their accommodations, photos, as well as personal information about themselves. If travelers find a good match, they can book a room with a credit card just like any travel site - that is, if the host also approves their profile.

Joe discusses why people are interested in staying with strangers, how they deal with issues of safety, and how they are tying in with the Democratic and Republican National Conventions.

AirBed & Breakfast

After the two Alternate Reality Games held in May, Warner has launched different initiatives to promote “Batman: The Dark Knight” in Brazil.

The first is the promotion of the local version of the “Why so serious?” website, which allows users to have their photos scribbled on by the Joker, and the blog Eu Acredito em Harvey Dent (which translates to “I Believe in Harvey Dent”), a place where internet users can find information about Harvey Dent, the candidate for District Attorney in the movie. At the blog, users can also find all the campaign material used in the film. The Youtube channel “haahhahaa” brings trailers of famous Warner movies - edited and ridiculed by the Joker, to show his displeasure with the company. A phone number appears during these trailers. Those who call the number hear a message from the Joker himself.

Finally, Warner’s latest initiative is being held in partnership with mobile phone operator Claro and Nokia. Participants search for hidden letters with the help of tips revealed in the website www.cartasescondidas.com.br (hiddenletters.com.br). Each letter is worth points and the five people with most points win a Nokia N95 phone, loaded with content from the film. Another 495 people will win tickets to see the movie.

[via Direto do Forno]

Carrying on with our Bay Area Innovators series, where we chat with Bay Area-based entrepreneurs about their businesses and how they turn a profit, we bring you Ben Finkel.

Ben Finkel is the CEO of Fluther.com, a community question and answer site where you can ask questions about anything and the community will help answer those questions. Ben discusses how they connect users questions to experts and what inspires complete strangers to help each other out.

Fluther

On our recent trip to the San Francisco, PSFK met with some Bay Area-based young entrepreneurs and spoke with them about the innovative companies and applications they’re creating. Over the next few weeks, we’ll present some of the inspiration shared by the eclectic group of creators and innovators.

The first in our series is Ramit Sethi. Four years ago, after investing [and loosing] his scholarship money in the stock market while in college, Ramit launched a blog about personal finance and personal entrepreneurship called I Will Teach You To Be Rich that currently hosts about 175,000 readers, mostly young people. Ramit explains why people are interested in money and how he has leveraged his blog to become a full fledged business.

I Will Teach You To Be Rich

“Choose Your Own Adventure” via Youtube - why didn’t we think of that? Youtube’s video response feature is a perfect set-up for homemade choose your own adventure storytelling. The popular book series allows its readers to determine how stories will end by directing them to specific pages depending on which next step (they’re given multiple options) they want to take the characters on. Youtube user SMPfilms’ video series is similar, allowing the viewer to make the next move in the story (in this case, finding the main character’s cat) by choosing one of the video responses featured on the first clip’s page. You can watch the beginning here, but you’ll have to click-through to Youtube to embark on the adventure…

[via Fallon Planning]

A few weeks ago we stumbled on an innovative approach to web browsing that utilizes site navigation through movements picked up on your webcam. As webcams become standard we’ll hopefully see more sites taking advantage of their use. Of course, while the site is beautifully rendered it is sometimes frustrating to headbutt your way through choices when keyboard and track pads lie tantalizingly close. Web design by Publicis & Hal Riney.

Some of you may have noticed a few recent changes at PSFK. Simply we relaunched our IF! marketing subscriber-only site as Marktd the free-for-all site. I did this for a number of reasons:

• Mainly because IF! stopped being good. Yes, we had several hundred paying subscribers but in the end it was several hundred. When anything you wrote on PSFK.com could be read by to 10,000 readers on a given day - it was hard to dedicate a lot of time on a site that might be read by hundreds (despite Henry Lambert’s great support).
• It was hard/embarrassing to interview people or write exclusive content for a site that wasn’t read by many people. It was even more difficult to find new writers for IF!
• As folks were paying, we felt that everything we wrote on IF! had to be serious and helpful. We missed the quips, the anger, the projects, the digs, the random crap.
• Too much content on PSFK was/is about advertising and marketing. I know some people have a hard time distinguishing the difference between the two but it should go like this: PSFK covers trends and ideas that are culturally relevant. Advertising / marketing is very rarely culturally relevant.
• This actually is the second version of Marktd. Our trial with Marktd 1.0 ended with a deluge of spam and somehow Google didn’t care. The Digg like site attracted a lot of folks in Indonesia and India intent on hitting with it with links to crap. Oddly, it’s Google Ranking improved with the absence of marketing content.
• The Digg like community aspect of Marktd 1.0 didn’t appeal to marketers. See what I wrote about this earlier here.
• We still think there is a lot to be improved with creative thinking. We launched IF! to suggest ideas and stimulate advertising and marketing thinkers. Marktd will continue to do so.
• I think there is a lot to be improved with advertising and marketing trade press. We launched IF! to suggest ideas and stimulate advertising and marketing thinkers. The trade press continues to fail to.
• I think Marktd is going to be a little more memorable than http://if.psfk.com. It also can live by itself one day if needs be.
• I want Marktd to become a leading voice in creative ideas in the same way PSFK.com has become a leading voice in trends and inspiration.

So, I need some help. We need content for Martkd. Great content not “here’s the latest campaign” type content. Check the contact details over on Marktd for information.

Marktd