Shareworthy articles and content syndicated from other sites. These aren’t things I’ve written or necessarily endorse, for the record.
Just because your life revolves around your living room couch—whether you whittle away the hours playing video games, blogging, or buying and selling action figures on eBay—doesn't mean you can't have the body of a chiseled supermodel. More »
Even if you haven’t ever visited popular visual bookmarking site Pinterest, you might recognize its design elements — which have been popping up everywhere since the startup burst onto the mainstream scene in 2011.
The site doesn’t use traditional web building blocks.
“It’s almost like a window-shopping mode,” says Khoi Vinh, the former design director for NYTimes.com.
“It puts the ball back in the user’s court,” muses Andrew Beck, a web designer at Blue Fountain Media.
“It flattens the information hierarchy,” describes Jeff Croft, a web designer and co-founder of ebook lending site Lendle.
Pinterest puts web content into sticky-note sized blocks users can organize onto pinboards that fill the entire browser screen. The majority of each block is filled by a photo, and the ability to “like,” “repin” or comment at the bottom make it look like its own mini web page.
Though the hot Palo Alto startup is staying mum about its user numbers, one study found it drives more traffic to websites than Google+, YouTube and LinkedIn combined.
SEE ALSO: 7 Tips for Planning a Wedding on Pinterest | Pinterest Becomes Top Traffic Driver for Retailers [INFOGRAPHIC]
As it has gained in popularity, so too has its unusual design.
Quora launched a new feature in December that incorporates a topic “boards.” In January, social video startup Chill.com redesigned the site to contain “bricks” of videos shared by the people who you follow, complete with social activity from other Chill users. And several content visualization projects such as Scrolldit, which launched in December, took on the Pinterest block-by-block content feel.
Pinterest didn’t invent the basic design structure, but it did help make it cool.
Most designers cite a layout plugin called jQuery Masonry while describing the look of Pinterest’s site. Launched in February of 2009 by designer David DeSandro, it makes it easy for web designers to create a vertical layout like that of Pinterest.
It also broke the system of organizing information online based on reverse chronology, as favored by Twitter and Facebook. Reverse chronology is a tired, overly-used system; as Vinh says, “I almost thought it was the default way to organize information on the web.”
Though many sites experimented with the jQuery Masonry layout, it didn’t immediately catch on with sites that were offering a service.
“The sites I saw before Pinterest that used this design were pretty much tech demos of how you could do this,” Croft says.
SEE ALSO: 15 of the Most Popular Pictures on Pinterest
Pinterest, as far as the designers Mashable spoke with could remember, was the first site to take the idea to mainstream success. It showed how the design could solve certain challenges eloquently and how the traditional reverse chronology layout could be broken without scaring users away. In fact, it was attracting them in invitation-only droves.
Consequently, the design caught on. Croft says that five clients in the last six months have mentioned Pinterest when discussing what they want their website designs to look like.
“At a pure level, there’s an advantage if you ave set of information that benefits from people accessing it in a non-linear fashion,” Vinh says of the layout. “For most people, they saw it on Pinterest and want to be almost as cool as Pinterest.”
A Quora “board.”
Chill.com after its December redesign.
1. Hands
Pinterest via Edris Kim.
Click here to view this gallery.
More About: design, pinterest, trending
For more Dev & Design coverage:Follow Mashable Dev & Design on TwitterBecome a Fan on FacebookSubscribe to the Dev & Design channelDownload our free apps for Android, Mac, iPhone and iPad
Google is a pretty important source of traffic and revenue for Gilt Groupe, an online retailer.
Google+ has not been.
But, thanks to a new controversial feature called “Search Plus Your World,” which pulls Google+ pages into Google search results, retailers like Gilt are going to have to start worrying about Google+.
That’s what Gilt Groupe marketing exec Jason John said at the Social Commerce Summit in New York today.
Search Plus Your World is a little controversial because it causes Google's search engine — which is used almost ubiquitously — to favor results from people and businesses that use its social network.
That’s caused companies like Twitter to cry foul over the changes, saying it unfairly shifts focus away from other social media channels like Twitter.
Controversy or not, it’s now a reality for businesses that rely on Google’s organic search results as a huge source of traffic and sales, John said. Retailers like Gilt Groupe are among those businesses.
“Search is extremely important to us,” John said. “Google will have its way and we will have to focus on Google+. We launched our presence on Google+ yesterday.”
Please follow SAI on Twitter and Facebook.
Join the conversation about this story »
See Also:
Two Of New York’s Hottest Entrepreneurs Explain Why Doing Social Good Is Actually Great For Your BusinessHere’s How To Actually Make Money Using Social MediaLivingSocial CEO Says 80% Of Businesses Are Willing To Do More Than One Deal (If Asked)
We already knew the iPhone 4S camera was good thanks to its small pixel size and backlit sensor. That’s helping the iPhone 4S rise up the ranks of most popular camera on Flickr. It may also help the iPhone 4S become the most used smartphone in a microscope.
Before you think, “say what?” have a gander at this 400x video scan of a tubular adenoma of the colon, taken with an iPhone 4S and the Skylight, a smartphone adapter for microscopes that’s now a Kickstarter project.
The SkyLight actually works with nearly any other smartphone as well, but it should excel with an iPhone 4S, if not some of the high-end Nokia models that use superb optics. Most focusing is done on the microscope itself, but the SkyLight relies upon a smartphone’s auto-focus feature for fine focusing.
This Kickstarter project already raised more than $22,000, which is greater than the $15,000 goal originally set. CSI types can still get in on the action with a pledge of $60 or more for a SkyLight. The microscope? You’ll have to supply that yourself.
I especially like how you can record video through the microscope with a SkyLight. Kids telling parents about what they saw in biology class is one thing; to share an actual video is quite a different experience.
Related research and analysis from GigaOM Pro:
Subscriber content. Sign up for a free trial.
Facebook’s IPO filing: ideas and implicationsConnected world: the consumer technology revolutionMobile Q2: Smartphone growth surges; iPad’s rule continues
Honeywell filed a multi-patent infringement lawsuit against Nest Labs and Best Buy yesterday. The suit alleges that Nest Labs is infringing on seven Honeywell patents. Honeywell is not seeking licensing fees. The consumer electronic conglomerate wants Nest Labs to cease using the technology and is actually looking to collect damages caused by the infringement. Damages? Bullshit. This is about killing the competition.
This lawsuit hit Silicon Valley and the tech world hard when it broke Monday morning. Nest Labs is the Valley’s star child right now. The company, founded by the godfather of the iPod, started in a Palo Alto garage just over two years ago and successfully disrupted a stale industry so hard that it seems to have resulted in a major lawsuit. The company won a Best of Innovations Award at CES 2012 and, just last week, a Crunchie for Best New Device. People love Nest. And now most of those same people hate Honeywell.
Honeywell has every right to protect their intellectual property. In their defensive, Nest Labs is clearly riffing off of Honeywell’s iconic round thermostat design. Honeywell’s T87 thermostat is undeniably, instantly recognizable as a thermostat. But so is a Kleenex box. And a Frisbee. Shame on Nest Labs if the Nest Learning Thermostat was intentionally developed from Honeywell’s intellectual property. But from where I sit Nest Labs is simply trying to advance the thermostat using novel features in a familiar design.
The suit alleges Nest Labs infringes on several of Honeywell’s patents involving thermostats. Several, like 7159789 and 7159790, involve the round hardware mechanism, rotating dial and center screen placement. Others, namely 7142948 and 7634504, covers the user interface. Natural language installer setup for controller (7634504) allows for a graphical user interface that sets up the device through a series of simple questions like, “On weekdays, is someone home all day?” and “What is a comfortable sleeping temperature in the summer?” You see, the Nest also has a friendly user interface. Apparently Honeywell is the only one allowed to have a round, rotating idiot-proof thermostat.
Honeywell has been selling thermostats for years but none, including the company’s very pricey Prestige line, match the Nest’s build quality or user interface. I spent a considerable amount of time shopping for a thermostat last year. Out of the six or so Honeywell models I tried, all were cheaply made and featured piss-poor UIs. I literally punched my wall after becoming so frustrated with one of the Prestige models.
The difference between a Honeywell thermostat and the Nest is striking. One is a cheap, clearly mass-produced hunk of plastic and the other is something you would be proud to own. This feeling is exactly why this lawsuit reeks of greed. Honeywell is embarrassed, perhaps even slightly frightened, by an upstart that is managing to get people excited about thermostats.
Honeywell clearly knows what they’re doing. While it’s easy to throw up your hands in disgust, Honeywell is operating within their rights. A quick run-through of the patents revels that the Nest Learning Thermostat is seemingly infringing on all seven. Some are trivial like the four aforementioned patents but the others are a bit more substantial and detailed. Patent 7476988 Power Stealing Control Devices lists the process required to leech the thermostat’s power from another source and store it in a battery, capacitor or the like. But it’s not my job to decide which claim has merit. It’s the hands of the courts now.
I spoke with Matthew Mitchell, Esq. of Mitchell Law PLLC regarding Honeywell’s claims. He pointed out that Nest could have simply overlooked the patents listed here. Or, as he assumes is more likely, the company was aware of these and already have a litigation strategy ready to argue that the patents are invalid.
Patents are intended to protect non-obvious ideas while advancing general innovation. Mitchell later pointed out, “Patents are the great equalizer. Patents enable garage inventors and small startups (some of which are referred to derogatorily as: non-practicing entities or ‘trolls’) to compete with the big boys like Honeywell.” If the case was reversed, if Nest was suing Honeywell, the tech press’ knee-jerk reaction would have been different, but still likely siding with the little guy.
It will be up to the courts whether Honeywell’s claims have merit and the company is due damages, but unfortunately the only winner in this case will be the legal teams. Nest Labs will likely spend money earmarked for R&D/marketing on a defense. Honeywell’s image is tarnished.
But worse yet, the consumer will lose the most if a novel startup like Nest Labs is sued out of existence.