With Google now recognised as the UK’s number one brand we’re seeing the developing maturity of an Internet-controlling corporation. Google has been remarkably subtle and intelligent in taking control of the Internet. They won the search engine wars some time ago, effectively defining the way Websites are developed and presented. Governments and the EU have tried to do this and failed. Continue reading... About the Author Jem Shaw is Marketing Director and co-founder of XSEO, the UK-based search engine optimisation specialist. Drawing on 30 years’ marketing experience, 15 of which have been primarily in digital media, he’s a regular speaker at marketing seminars and conferences

Ask announced that Photobucket has put its search box on the site. Photobucket is owned by MySpace parent News Corp., which has a search deal with Google. The Ask deal with Photobucket includes sponsored listings and other ads. Previously, web search on Photobucket was provided by Google. According to Ask: Through the terms of the pact, the Ask.com search box is now prominently displayed across Photobucket.com, driving millions of additional Ask.com search queries each month and exposing the Ask.com brand to Photobucket’s 44 million monthly unique users worldwide. The agreement also includes the syndication of sponsored listings and display advertising to Photobucket. Of course, many of those sponsored listings come from Google. Source: http://searchengineland.com/080710-113947.php

GIMP is an acronym for GNU Image Manipulation Program. It is a freely distributed program for such tasks as photo retouching, image composition and image authoring. It has many capabilities. It can be used as a simple paint program, an expert quality photo retouching program, an online batch processing system, a mass production image renderer, an image format converter, etc. GIMP is expandable and extensible. It is designed to be augmented with plug-ins and extensions to do just about anything. The advanced scripting interface allows everything from the simplest task to the most complex image manipulation procedures to be easily scripted. GIMP is written and developed under X11 on UNIX platforms. But basically the same code also runs on MS Windows and Mac OS X. Download Now

Microsoft's upcoming Windows 7 might just be the salve to soothe Windows Vista ouchies, but what Windows fans really want is something that hasn't yet been announced. Mary-Jo of All About Microsoft says that internally, there's a project called Singularity that's designed to solve all kinds of shortcomings in current operating systems, upending the traditional way of thinking in favor of something dramatically different. And while Singularity won't be released to the public, Midori, which takes a lot of cues from it, will. According to Microsoft 2.0: “There’s a seemingly related (related to Singularity) project under development at Microsoft which has been hush-hush. That project, codenamed ‘Midori,’ is a new Microsoft operating-system platform that supposedly supersedes Windows. Midori is in incubation, which means it is a little closer to market than most Microsoft Research projects, but not yet close enough to be available in any kind of early preview form. “What’s also interesting about Midori is who is running the project. One-time Gates heir-apparent Eric Rudder is heading up the effort. Midori is being incubated under Chief Research and Strategy Officer Craig Mundie’s wing. ‘Everyone under him (under Rudder on Midori) is a multi-year vet, has a super fancy title, and is going ...

3D graffiti, whether it’s in chalk or paint, on walls or the street, represents a new way of combining the mastery of Renaissance art techniques with the gritty, ephemeral qualities of amazing street art. These 3D street artists gives graffiti a whole new meaning – one that departs from the conventional interpretation of graffiti as vandalism in the form of images and letters scrawled on public property. Artists like Kurt Wenner, Eduardo Relero and Tracy Lee Stum create street art that’s so incredible it is almost impossible to pass by without being sucked in to the worlds they create on asphalt and concrete surfaces. Kurt Wenner’s ability to transform Renaissance classicism into 3D street art is unparalleled and has made him the top anamorphic street painting artist of our time. Kurt aims to ‘reinvent classicism for a new age’, bringing his talent for realism to the streets, literally, having invented a pictorial geometry that corrects the specific distortion caused by viewing his street paintings at an oblique angle. A former NASA illustrator, Kurt has had his work featured in a lengthy list of articles, television features, ads, and documentaries. Edgar Muller and Manfred Stader are a German team of street painters. Much ...