George Lucas tweaking the Star Wars movies once again for the Blu-Ray release has tweaked more than a few fans. But this excellent banner ad on espn.com is the latest example of how the Star Wars brand is letting advertisers have fun with it.
The question remains though: Will #ishallnowselectakicker be trending on Twitter?
This is a great piece from one of the web's best. How have you taken the user experience beyond usability? How can you empower and even inspire your audience to motivate them to act upon whatever ultimate call to action you've created?
Looks like Bing has defied the odds, breathing new life into the cocktail napkin sketch concept with its Destination Maps app. And while it pains us to give Microsoft some props for design, the proof is in the pictures. The rendering can take some time (knew there was something), so you can look here before you leap.
Sometimes web ads that invade content are cool. Sometimes they aren't. This one's just plain squirm-worthy. Before you say "Too soon, Liberty Mutual?" their cracked-screen animation had been used long before this. It just was never this, say, 'ill-timed.'
For an insurance company, you would think they would've predicted a possible bad outcome to using this technique. Maybe they should have called out keywords or sent some sort of automatic instructions to the webmaster to take some of the risk out, so as not to allow the brand to be commit such a faux pas. After all, if anyone should be taking extra steps for the responsibility of managing their online image, it's Liberty Mutual. That's their policy anyway.
With Google's release of Sidewiki, your web site is no longer in its own comfy cocoon, free from the slings and arrows of disgruntled consumers. Now anyone can put notes for all to see on any web page. No comments. No problem. Surfers and surfettes can see what people think of your site and your company on a public discussion board that, to date, will not be moderated.
Of course, it's Google, so algorithms based on unclear, yet surely infallible variables will determine which user comments are the most relevant and therefore deserving of the coveted top positions. Other users can vote on a comment's helpfulness or report it as spam/vulgar/tasteless.
Also, as it stands now, users or (more likely) webmasters who believe the comments step on their copyright are encouraged to file a DMCA copyright complaint. This appears to be an attempt by Google to head off the wave of public dismay that brought 1999 start-up Third Voice to its knees - one of the first attempts to incorporate this kind of discourse on the web.
Will Sidewiki be a consumer trump card? That is unclear, especially considering that the honeymoon period for this unmoderated intrusion on millions of web sites is surely going to be short. (We anticipate an opt-out or opt-in feature in the near future that can be placed in a site's code.) But for now, it looks like bad companies and disappointing products have less of a chance to hide. So for the rest of us, just keep on putting your best foot forward and don't suck.
We're playing with Monopoly money here at Casa de Hoot. Or at least trying to.
The new Monopoly City Streets is live, though it did take forever to get it to work even with the shortcut around the cool slow intro animation. So much for considering the user experience.
This online iteration of the take-home version of the game turns Google Maps into the largest Monopoly board imaginable, so you can find your street, buy it, then literally walk around like you own the place. When the servers are up. Which apparently isn't all that often.
We just hope we can get back on to buy Coil Avenue, so we can have all the Rene's and La Piedad we want.
So in the battle for 9.9.09, it appears that Beatles Rockband is winning, especially with this sweet Pandora station customizer. 
But restaurant.com's 'ninety' percent promo is a close second.
Group 94 and Mortierbrigade have created the Eternal Moonwalk for Studio Brussels - a spot-on tribute to Michael Jackson complete with virtual tape measure.
Using a simple video-extending concept similar to soccer juggling videos from Nike and JogaTV, these bad-ass Belgians have made it super easy to add your take on the coolest dance move this side of, well, the moon.
Don't have the moonwalk down? Take your refresher course here.
UPDATE: Make your own MJ playlist off Grooveshark, get some Caffeine and you've got a sweet party backdrop.
This week, "Guys backflip into jeans" - a 1:47 tour de farce from Levi's - turned one year old. This YouTube phenom also passed 5 million hits (to be said with pinkie placed on corner of mouth). That's pretty good considering it's not a music video and doesn't feature a laughing baby.
It's shot as you would expect via handheld cam, but with smooth enough editing and a bouncy soundtrack to keep it moving. And the talent featured are seasoned breakdancers with, as they say, mad skills. The only real trickery was that the guys wore silk boxers, and the pants were starched silly.
So what can we learn from one of the most viewed "commercials" on YouTube. The same thing we learn from the most viewed one. Find a gimmick and run with it.
28,597,169 hits with a little help from world sports icon Ronaldinho.
Whether semi-scripted, staged or CGI'ed, people want to be surprised by the whirling dervish du jour. So spin your plates and strike up the calliope, just don't think you're making a TV spot. Approach it more like you're capturing a moment in time that answers the questions: Wouldn't it be cool if someone did X with our product or because of our brand? Or what is a credibly over-the-top way to show our level of expertise or service is better than the next guys?
Just be the barker, and you'll find a following.
We love anyone who loves experimenting with ideas. And these little web gems from
Andy Foulds and Tomas Eriksson prove that the greatest step to inspiring others is to just put yourself and your ideas out there.
Maybe we overstate the case, but these underground and often unpolished experiments champion the notion that simple ideas resonate the most.
First, Andy Foulds. A little Monty Python and whole lot of PolySci go in to making this Brit's amusements something to be experienced. Many of them date back a few years (and use perennial punching bags Dubya and Tony Blair), but the thought and execution behind them are so simple and clever that they stand the test of time. You can just picture swapping in Obama dodging an AIG logo or a dancing Bernie Madoff in prison to keep it current. And if you tire of all the political potshots, you can indulge in some bubblewrap Therapy.
And with the way the stock market's been behaving lately, his Economists is better now than when he first created it in 2004. You can just hear the harumphing. Even the juxtaposition to the Google Ads at the bottom are a hoot. Just a few tweaks numbers-wise, Andy, and you've got yourself one of the best virals of '09.
Not to be outdone, we have Tomas Eriksson. From Spider to Drum Machine, Tomas certainly has no problem completely handing over the reins of his world to the user. Spider especially shows just how much attention to detail it takes to make something intuitive and effortless. Brilliantly simple. Simply brilliant. We just hope visitors find it more amusing than his cat did. 
Of course, these are just a couple of examples. Who do you like? web articles
The FWA launched a new endeavor today for your daily inspiration. FWA Photo includes comments, info and links to the photographer and even a lightbox to archive your favorites. If today's post is any indication of the surprises you'll see, then FWA Photo is definitely diversion-worthy.
Bodybuilder Children by Kurt Stallaert
If your awareness of what's possible on the web is limited to Google, Facebook and Hotmail, maybe you should check out the FWA. In this fickle, what's-next driven world, the FWA has managed to remain the end-all, be-all web gallery since its inception. Maybe it's that they have awarded a Site of the Day every day since 2000. Maybe it's that they have a discerning Hall of Fame selection of interactive firms that really does just showcase the best of the best (Are you listening, Major League Baseball?) Or maybe it's because they spell 'Favourite' with a 'u.'
But despite all it's super-shiny charm, the sites aren't always as functional as they are flamboyant. Even if the FWA is old hat to you, here are just a few tips to make the FWA a practical resource for the rest of us and not just some place where you curse at slow load times and shake your head at the mind-blowing budgets that must have justified them.
Even with consumer spending down, online window shopping is up. E-commerce sites from Target to eBay to that random little knick-knack site have all seen more traffic come there way as people search online first for the best deals and the best use of their hard-earned cash.
So now is a great time to update that site to make you a great resource with great reasons to buy from. Now we're not talking about redesign per say. You've got to manage your dollars wisely as well. But what is your site lacking? What would make the user experience better and more, well, useful?
Is there some app that you could add to make it easier for shoppers to get recommendations or just know what's coming so they save their pennies for what you're peddling? more >>>
How about a widget that brings you to your customers every time they turn on their computer instead of having your store sitting there waiting on an exit ramp on the information superhighway?
Google adwords. There's another low-cost, highly measurable route that is just a good thing to test even if you don't stick with it.
Or is there something else on the horizon as video is ready to burst (really burst) onto the mobile scene? At the very least make sure your e-commerce site translates on cell phones (not just iPhones, people). Even if that means creating a mobile URL (mobile.target.com, etc.) -- it could have goodies and deals only found in the mobile world.
With so many possibilities, it can be overwhelming. But it's nice to know you can always search online first for the best deals and the best use of your hard-earned cash.
(Editor's Note: Apologies to the Mac users for the headline, but we do live in a PC world.)
It seems whenever we get a naming project or are asked to create a new web presence for a client, one of the most maddening part of the process is securing a unique and memorable URL. Finding a solid '.com' address is becoming evermore elusive. And do you dare go the .net or .tv route? Or sexier yet: .us or .it? To some clients it doesn't matter. To others, it's dot-com or the superhighway.
Now, creative URLs are nothing new using country codes (like .us or .it). And .tv actually is for the country Tuvalu, not television. But a new opportunity to create virtually any domain name you want is virtually upon us. In what's being heralded as a "massive increase in the real estate of the internet," ICANN - the governing body of URL names - has all but given the green light to broadening the list of acceptable URL suffixes to include pretty much any word or non-word you can think of. It's sort of like resetting the domain-name playing field, except you know now what you wish you had known then.
Of course, no one is sounding the death knell for the tried-and-true '.com'; far from it. But it certainly expands the creative possibilities. The new ICANN regulations (deregulations?) will even accept the recognition of Chinese and Arabic characters for the first time. more >>>
The discussion is still going on (it was actually extended a week until December 15th, but they've yet to officially close it), but by their own forecasts, the wider format will go live sometime in Q3 of 2009.
Will some cybersquatter strike it rich by registering cocacola.soda (cocacola.pop for the other half of the population), nike.shoes or corona.calm?
Will local hospitals and banks work themselves into a frenzy buying things like bestindiana.hospital, wearenewyorks.bank or yourmoneyissafe.here? All we know is that the web is about to get a little more tangled.
Should the Hadron Collider have been built? Are you looking forward to the advance in technology in the coming years? Do you think Leon Panetta is a wise choice for Director of the CIA? Are you worried about what your kids will see on the internet (namely this blog)?
These are the questions that are posed and pondered on ask500people.com 
- the site that allows the world to chime in on whatever is on people's minds. more
Now we wouldn't qualify this as a divining rod for the answer to your brand's or product's questions, but it is fascinating to see what people have to say, if they feel compelled to comment and from what part of the world they hail.
Here's one where a medical imaging company decided to put their new tagline to the test.
Let's look at the clear favorite: Accurate answers. Fast.
Simple. Generic.
In a distant second, we have: Flat-out precise.
It's confident, a little unusual in its phrasing, and in the medical profession, it seems that precision is much more valuable than accuracy.
That's the trick with focus groups of any kind - loose or formal. People generally gravitate towards what they already know in these types of settings, but when it comes to piquing their interest in the hustle and bustle of the outside world, you need to be shiny, new and unlike anything they've seen before to be perceived as better than what they already have.
Of course, the questions and multiple choice answers are often much more captivating than the responses because they provide more of a window into what answers people are searching for than a list of the top Google searches would show you. Let's take this one.
'Where should the Obamas get their dog?'
We've heard how it's got to be from the pound. No ifs, ands or buts. Especially since Obama's VP Joe Biden got his German Shepherd from a breeder. But seriously, where are you supposed to get one of the smartest and sought-after dogs around?
It opened our owl eyes to see one of the multiple choice answers was to get the dog through the classifieds. Brilliant suggestion! Pounds are overcrowded and underfunded. Wouldn't it be better to encourage trying to find good homes for pets via craigslist or the want ads versus dumping the dog at the pound?
Usually when people insist there's only one right answer, they haven't thought the whole thing through.
Anyway, just a fun place to experiment or play wallflower and see what's on people's minds.
And when the site finally has loaded, shut Pandora off, close out of any large applications and clean up whatever else might slow your computer down, so you can embrace the full experience with as little buffering as possible.
Examples: Milk's Get the Glass, Pepsi's MaxFan
Examples: Swedish Armed Forces, Victor Taba, The Singing Beertap
Examples: Thank you begins with a T, Crumpler
Examples: Smart Car, VW Snake
Examples: Flickr Time, Spam Recycler
Example: The Simpsons
So as you explore the World Wide Web, use resources as walking staffs, not divining rods.