This site has been doing the rounds within the GA office for the past week now, and we’re still not sick of it!

It’s a project created by Chris Milk for Arcade Fire and Google Chrome. The project is called “The Wilderness Downtown” and is set to Arcade Fire’s new song “We Used to Wait”.  It  showcases many of the latest developments on the web and features a mash-up of Google Maps and Google Street View with HTML5 canvas, HTML5 audio and video, an interactive drawing tool, and choreographed windows that dance around the screen.

But enough of our gushing over the technical expertise used to create this masterpiece… it’s best experienced in person. So download Google Chrome, turn up your speakers, sit back and enjoy! Click here.

Ping has had a rocky road since its launch last Wednesday with Apple’s social network being hit with comment spam and international availability issues. It has also received lackluster reviews from the media.

However, that hasn’t stopped droves of people from trying out the iTunes-based social network. Apple says that 1/3 of users that have downloaded iTunes 10 have joined Ping.

Should we be surprised, though? More than 160 million people have iTunes, and curiosity is always at a high after an Apple announcement. While Ping may have over 1 million registered users, that doesn’t mean they’ll still be using the social network three months from now. Those are the numbers we’ll be interested in, as those will be the figures that determine Ping’s fate and how we can harness it’s power. Watch this space…

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For something a little more rude, try Justin Halpern’s hilarious feed. Now a book and soon to be sitcom!

Ping will be included in Apple’s next update for iTunes and will allow users to follow musicians and friends to receive information such as what music they’re listening to or what concerts they’re attending. This will appear in a stream -  similar to Facebook or Twitter.

The service, available immediately, can also be accessed via the iPhone and iPod Touch.

The news will come as a blow to rival social music services, such as MySpace, which had planned a fresh assault on the social music market later this year with a major relaunch.

Apple have also announced the release of a new iPod Touch 4G, iPod Nano 6th Gen, and a version of Apple TV that can stream movies and television shows directly from the internet.

So, let’s take a look at how some big brands are using Foursquare…

Zagat

Zagat is the go-to guide for restaurant and hotel reviews, and their embrace of numerous social media channels is noteworthy. The type of service Zagat offers is particularly suited to Foursquare, and they use the network like an individual user would – by leaving food-related tips about locations.

Zagat leaves tips and recommendations in the Foursquare system and Foursquare users can submit their own suggestions for activities and dishes to order at a particular restaurant, which will pop up when their friends “check in” on Foursquare from that venue.

But the Zagat partnership adds a slightly different layer to the content by incorporating recommendations culled from the company’s repository of reader reviews. For example, users who check into a Zagat-ranked restaurant will receive suggestions about great dishes or the best dessert on the menu.

Zagat’s Foursquare account is an obvious way to reinforce everything the brand is known for, and perhaps tap into a new demographic of diners who may be reluctant to carry around a paperback guide in addition to their smartphones.

MTV

Fans can keep tabs on the favorite haunts of stars from Jersey Shore and The Hills, driving the social connection to these personalities beyond the TV and into our everyday lives.

Not only can users see where the stars have been, but also what they did, enjoyed, and recommend.

The History Channel

When users check in around various U.S. cities, they can find historical tidbits about their location and unlock the limited edition History Channel badge (below).

The account leaves tips at various sites, including interesting historical background on the locations. It’s trivia, but with a real-world and educational context.

This is a clever use of indirect marketing. The History Channel doesn’t have to promote its shows or link back to content to remind fans why they enjoy the programming. More than 47,000 followers are already enjoying the historical tips left by the account, since its launch in April.

Conde Nast’s Lucky Magazine

Launched in time for New York Fashion week, the collaboration offers Foursquare users tips for the best places for a cocktail, WiFi, coffee, etc, near all show locations. So if you check into a show location on Foursquare, Lucky will give people tips on where to go near these big venues in-between shows. Each location will be hand-picked and recommended by Lucky editors.

But, just like the other recent Foursquare partnerships, there’s a long-term angle too. This takes the form of a Lucky Shopping Directory which is a list of about 700 stores maintained inside Foursquare. If you pop into one of these locations, and check in on Foursquare, you’ll get tips and incentives like discounts or deals plus the usual Foursquare badges.

New Yorker Magazine

New York Magazine uses Foursquare to drive home its coverage of city-specific culture and targets the social New Yorker with tips on retail stores, bars, and public spaces.

The tips offer details on pricing and goings-on, and provide links back to the New Yorker website for deeper coverage. In this regard, New York Magazines’ approach to Foursquare is akin to the Twitter strategy of many publishers, with the added value of location.

While Google claim that this change “will make it much easier for users to find a large number of results from a single site”, it has not gone without a certain amount of criticism.

Firstly, let’s use Sky Sports again as the example. Although Sky Sports may well be a prominent brand, with a website providing useful news to those looking for it, as a product in the UK, it is not exclusively found on the Sky TV network.  Sky Sports is also sold by Virgin and BT Vision. Therefore, by allowing Sky Sports to dominate this search engine results page (SERP) it may well be very damaging to the sales of the product on those two other platforms.

The comments on the Google Webmaster page which broke the news also highlight some usability issues…

mayank said…“I dont think its very useful. it will eat up my time by having to click on subsequent pages, for if i wanted more results from a single site, i could always do “more from site” command.”

Collin Cornwell said…“This is a horrible feature.. Major retailers that sell “branded” products will be pushed off the page, giving users fewer options. Bing is going to steal a tremendous amount of market share because of this.”

30something said…“I was 2nd on the page for my search term – now I’m 9th, underneath 8 pages from my competitor. yeah, a real nice start to my weekend.”

What I find interesting is the last statement by Google:

“We expect today’s improvement will help users find deeper results from a single site, while still providing diversity on the results page.”

However, was it not Google’s Peter Norvig who said, “for the second one [search result], you don’t want something that’s almost the same as the first. You prefer some diversity.”

Brands with reputation management issues will benefit from this change. However, aside from that, I’m not sure I see how beneficial this change will be…

The best method of illustrating how it works is through using this video, presented by Matt Cutts of Google. As well as understanding how search engines work, you’ll also learn a bit about PageRank, indexing and paid for adverts. Enjoy!

The latest results from the IMRG Capgemini e-Retail Sales Index reveal that shoppers spent £5 billion online in July, the most in any month this year. With Brits spending an average of £81 per person, online retail has shown a marked turning point since the lows of the last two years with consistently high growth levels throughout the first half of 2010.

The Index has grown by 18% compared to last July, in the biggest annual jump for the month of July since before the recession in 2007. As retailer promotions drew shoppers online, an impressive growth rate of 14% was recorded compared to June – the highest monthly growth of 2010 so far.

A true British summer materialised in late July, with over twice the average rainfall for the time of year recorded. Growth in travel sales rose by a third as a result, with Brits escaping the drizzle in favour of last minute deals in hotter climes. The travel sector grew by a greater amount compared to June than any other sector analysed in the Index, as consumers took advantage of heavy discounting by travel companies to book last minute holidays.

Alcohol sales took a knock after the highs of the start of the international sports season in May and June, and perhaps after England’s disappointing performance in the World Cup. Sales of beers, wines and spirits online fell by a tenth compared to the previous month.

David Smith, Managing Director of IMRG said:

“With over half of the UK population online at least once a day it is no surprise that online sales continue to grow impressively year on year. The evidence mounts that high street retailers will need to invest more in their online business and put it at the heart of their retail strategy. Online retailers, on the other hand, will need to continue to innovate as they strive to close the growth gap.”

The performance of retailers with a high street and an online presence continues to outshine that of online only retailers. Multichannel retailers witnessed growth of 18% compared to last month, while online only (‘pureplay’) retailers showed month on month growth of only 8%. Multichannel retailers are also managing to convert more browsers into actual sales, with an average conversion rate of 4.49%, compared 4.35% for online only retailers.

Salary: £25-£35k depending on experience
Contract type: Permanent
Country: United Kingdom
Location Details: London WC2

Please email CVs to Alison Young – alison@graphicalliance.co.uk

PLEASE NOTE THAT DUE TO THE AMOUNT OF APPLICATIONS RECEIVED IT IS NOT ALWAYS POSSIBLE TO REPLY