Everyone googles themselves

The Pew Internet Research Centre have just released a slew of new data in a report on reputation management in social media. You can download the pdf here and it is worth a read. Some things which stood out for us were:

- Young people DO care about privacy- 71% 18-29 year olds have changed the privacy settings on their profile to limit what they share.
- 57% of adults have used google to look up their name (a lower percentage than creative directors)
- 46% of online adults now have a social network profile
- More than ever before we are actively managing our online identity- removing comments, detagging photos and limiting online information

Read more over at Danah Boyd's Blog.

Ad of the Week

Google may be an all-powerful global behemoth, who will quite possibly rule the world one day, but you can't help to love them when they make beautiful advertising like this. Building on the tone established in their print and TV ads for Chrome, they have created a great story around 'search', which feels like it could form a long running campaign. It stands out all the more when compared to the rest of this year's decidedly lackluster superbowl ads. Where was this year's 1 second ad?

Special mention has to go to the Safer driving campaign which gets a runner up prize for introducing innovation into a category which has relied on shock tactics for too long.

The Art of the Box

When you know a video of your impressive direct mail piece will be uploaded by bloggers, you can put more money and effort into making it awesome. Companies seem to be realising the value of hype, the influence of bloggers, and the beneficial effects of creating something unique.
Now start sending some to us.

Alice in Wonderland Book
Nokia Black Box
Dante's Inferno
Google Nexus unboxing - Not a mailout but worth inclusion because of the creativity.

A Planner's Dream

If you want to know the answer to such life questions as which moonwalk is better (Neil Armstrong’s or Michael Jackson’s) you should check out this blog. But for everything else, the new Google Internet Stats is a good place to start. The site collates stats on a range of topics from macroeconomic trends to consumer trends.