Goodbye, ambiguity
Searching for something with multiple meanings? Google will now ask you what you meant. So if you search ‘Penguins,’ you can tell Google to filter your results based on the hockey team, not the adorable animals.

Think things, not strings
Gone are the days of simple keywords. Your string of words will be understood as a ‘thing’ by Google and given context. Type in ‘New York’ and instead of seeing ‘New’ and ‘York,’ Google sees the US state.

Get your cheat sheet on
Say hello to Google summaries, aka the cheat sheet of search. Search for Andy Warhol and Google will spit back a brief bio, photos & related things that you may be interested in.

Google plans on releasing its brainchild across the US in the next few days. And did we mention that we’re ridiculously excited to try it out? Because we are.

The site is based on the simple idea that what really matters is what you like, not what you are like; and that an individual’s interests, especially music, say a lot about a person. And while that sounds a bit shallow, there’s probably some truth in that.

So how does it work? Tastebuds just rolled out its Spotify app, which seamlessly integrates with your library & playlists to find users with similar taste. And of course, results can be filtered by gender, age & location.

But the absolute best part of Tastebuds? Once you deem a match worthy, you can channel your high school self and send them a mixtape. And since we all have two ears and a heart, make sure to include some Phil Collins.

Behind every story lies a human experience, and Cowbird hopes to capture that. Cowbird has created a social platform for members to share, exchange and engage in stories. The goal? To pioneer a new form of participatory journalism that focuses on human stories behind major news events. Users can share their stories through photographs, text and audio as a sort of interactive, digital diary within Cowbird.

Storify differs in its approach. Whereas Cowbird functions more as a way for users to share their personal experiences, Storify allows users to curate from the web to create a social narrative surrounding an event. Members can aggregate updates, tweets, YouTube videos, photos, etc. and embed them in a dynamic article, which can then live on an external site or be shared through social networks.

Although their objectives differ, both sites are beautifully designed, easy to use, and incorporate striking visuals. Both allow users, whether an individual or a company, to create a more compelling story that begs to be shared and retold. And at the end of the day, isn’t that what great storytelling is about?

To celebrate and document some of the most newsworthy events of 2011, the masterminds at Chaos Crew Tattoo Studio in Munich, Germany created a massive mural tattoo on calfskin. The poster depicts the most important events of the year, including the Japanese earthquake & tsunami, the bombing on Utoya Island and Oslo in Norway, and the downfall of the Egyptian government. It also incorporates elements of pop culture by including illustrations of late cultural icons Steve Jobs and Amy Winehouse.

While creating the mural, Chaos Crew aimed to stay true to the motive of all great tattoos— to tell a story. By tattooing the design on real skin (albeit not human), it also promotes the art of tattooing in its most authentic form. And all of which is done with the simple message of “we get history under your skin.”

The video says and shows it all. So get your instant popcorn ready, sit back and watch the awesomeness unfold.

The denim itself is made from a blend of beer bottles, cotton, polyester, and x-ray film and gets its color from the recycled plastic. Each pair of jeans boasts 3-5 bottles, otherwise known as a Friday Happy Hour. And besides being cool on premise alone, these jeans look amazing, too.

So do your part for Mother Earth and society—drink up and look good while you do it.

And we can’t say that the legendary designer has let us down. The new limited edition bottle designs are beautifully crafted and reflect Gaultier’s signature Breton sailor stripes, corsets and tattoos. Best of all? The designs highlight Coke’s trademark bottle shape by showcasing its elegant, slender physique.

In short, we want these; we need these. We have a few Karl Lagerfeld bottles in our office and think they would be the best of friends. Very fancy friends.

So whenever we heard about IKEA’s plan to build an entire neighborhood in East London, we started packing our bags. The neighborhood, called the Strand East, will feature 1,200 rental homes along with commercial office space. The area will also boast a shared community space, a creative zone for businesses, a restaurant and a hotel.

Still need some convincing? Strand East will be free of vehicle traffic (minus buses & ambulances) since all cars will be directed to an underground garage upon entering. Like something out of the Jetsons, garbage will be removed by a series of underground suction tunnels. And power? Well, that will be supplied via hydroelectricity.

Pretty, eco-friendly and cooler than Legoland? It’s as if IKEA knows the way to our heart. Put us on the waiting list.

In short, he divided the process into three distinct parts: the dreamer, the realist and the spoiler (which all kind of sound like Disney characters, right?). Each stage would balance one another, allowing big ideas to happen and then be refined.

1) The Dreamer: The big, wonderful, fantastical idea stage. This is the stage where impossible is possible. No idea is too absurd.

2) The Realist: The stage where dreams start to become reality. Positivity is the name of the game—the Realist focuses not on why ideas can’t be achieved, but how they can come to life.

3) The Spoiler: The villain stage. Flaws and shortcomings are pointed out. The Spoiler becomes the harshest critic. And if any ideas make it out of this phase? Winner, winner, chicken dinner.

It’s also rumored the Walt Disney would use three separate rooms for each stage of the brainstorming process. Since we’re in the midst of expanding our own office, maybe we’ll take a hint from Walt—our beanbag room would make a pretty badass Dreamer space.