David Emery OnlineSearch Without Effort: The Quick Search Box
One of our goals at Google is to make your search experience as fluid as possible. While much of our work is focused on Google.com, we’re trying to make it just as easy to search outside your browser.
For the last year, we have been working on a new, open-source quick search box. Today, we are releasing our first developer preview for the Mac.
Or: Quicksilver, v2.
Seems pretty good so far – finally a decent launch tool, complete with just enough eye candy and functionality (but not too much).
Visit ➔Flaming Tips
I’ve been at the old records again. Like your Grandad at Christmas who’s been “at the whiskey” he has stashed in his shed, I crept into the loft to admire the new speakers I got for Christmas and stayed there until the only thing I had left to listen to was an old Kasabian 12 inch I’d never got round to throwing out – and all because I’ve been hiding from writing the Tips For 2009 piece.
I get very grumpy about these things now (even, I hate to admit it, the BBC Sound Of poll makes me want to stuff cotton wool in my ears and sleep for a fortnight). But this year it’s particularly irksome because, actually, no-one really has a clue what’s going to happen in music in 2009.
Steve hits the nail square on the head here – last year, I think everyone had a pretty good idea of what was coming but this year it really seems like grasping at straws. Which is great, quite frankly, as there were very few acts tipped last year that I think really made much of a difference in the grand scheme of things – sure, people like Santogold, Vampire Weekend, Adele et al made good records but there wasn’t much genuine excitement.
Also: you are reading Steve Lamaqs blog, already – right? I have a feeling not many people know about it…
Visit ➔Surviving (the inevitable) Z-Apocalypse
The first thing you want to do when you realise that people are dying, then standing back up, then trying to eat you, is get to a safe place (duh!).
Beautiful bit of illustration-come-design – I wish all of the internet looked like this.
Visit ➔iPhoto '09 and Domain Language
It matters if we call something an Event or a Milestone or a Deadline. And it also goes deeper than that. The names we choose shape our software. They define the way we think about it and the way our customers interact with it.
I was beginning to worry a little that spending slightly too long on naming interface elements was me just being a bit mental; it’s nice to know that either I’m not or at least not alone.
Visit ➔2008 Music Blog Zeitgeist Countdown is ON!
We compiled data from over 700 year-end blog posts, analyzed it, and released it into the wild so everyone can see what bloggers were excited about in 2008. You can listen to full previews of the albums via imeem and browse bite-sized reviews via Musebin. We’ve also shared the data we used to compile this list under a CC license so people can see what we are working with.
The awesome-as-ever Hypemachine music blog countdown has just launched – always a good read and I’m loving their use of all sorts of different services (imeem, Flickr, Musebin) for different aspects of the Best Albums countdown.
Visit ➔Chew Lips - Solo (Demo)
Very promising. From http://www.pinglewood.com/2008/December/321_Chew_Lips.html
Visit ➔Abandoned London
Lovely set of photos of a deserted London on Christmas day.
It looks so peaceful…
YouTube overlay HD ads
I think this is new – I certainly haven’t seen it before; YouTube is now running overlay ads over the top of HD videos. Click the link above to see it in-situ (you’ll probably need to click ‘Watch in HD’), or click the image below for a bigger view:
TUAW goes hands-on with Rolando
This looks absolutely lovely, although I’m not going to get it yet as I’ve just bought Sim City for the iPhone instead (which seems to be pretty good from the 10 minutes I’ve spent with it). It’s very encouraging that there are already got too many games to get for the iPhone – I think it’s very rapidly establishing itself as a very viable platform fo games developers.
Visit ➔