The Webby Awards have announced their 12th annual list of nominees up for this year’s Webby Awards. I always take time to check out all the sites nominated, as I often discover interesting sites that I would never have known about otherwise. It is an incredibly useful tool for folks in advertising, as it provides a wide palette of sites that feature the best in design, navigation and overall best practices.

I also use it as a historical reference, as a zeitgeist of what is popular at a given time on the Internet. It is fun to also check out nominees and winners from earlier years to see how this space has evolved in the past 12 years. And now, the fun bit begins–take some time to check out the People’s Voice Awards, which allows the public to make their opinions heard about the best on the Internet and in mobile.
(Full Disclosure: I am a judge for the Online Advertising category at IADAS, the organization that selects the nominees for the Webby Awards. That means that any sites that I have a conflict of interest with getting a nomination, I did not personally vote for.) 

The following PSA points to how our attention can be incredibly selective:

I must admit that I fell for the trick, even though I had seen this original test from Daniel J. Simons of University of Illinois Visual Cognition Lab a while back.

The PSA is a elegant re-use of the original concept that points out the need to be aware of our own perceptual blindness (specifically for automobile drivers who forget to be aware of bicyclists sharing the road).

…or so says Ted Royer, ECD at droga5. His love for producers is professed in the most recent issue of ‘Boards Magazine. As a producer who works in advertising, I’m flattered by his sentiment (and of course I humbly agree), even if some of his definition makes us sound like borderline workaholic babysitters:

No, I want to marry a producer. A producer listens to the most batshit crazy idea and doesn’t say yes or no or ask why, but instantly asks “How?” She could talk me out of dumb things with grace and logic, or conversely show me what it’s possible to do with virtually nothing. A producer realizes that just as business and creativity need each other, responsibility (her) and irresponsibility (me) do too. A producer wouldn’t be afraid of different challenges, no matter what form they took. A producer would be tough, fighting battles I’d neither see nor even know about. A producer would plan for a rainy day and not even tell me she was doing it and then, when it started to rain, she’d say, “It’s covered, go over to the food table.” A producer would stay up all night partying with me, then make sure what needs to get done gets done, while I sleep. Marrying a producer would allow me to be as self-absorbed, self-indulgent, self-congratulatory, naval-gazing and “creative” as I want to be.

Smashing Magazine recently featured an incredibly handy list of new and emerging technologies to watch. The list comprises an inspiring array of cutting-edge work including projections, holograms, Nintendo Wii hacks and 3D TV.

I recently saw a demo of Philips’ 3D video that makes Smashing’s list (requires the use of a special 3D Philips TV to work), and agree that it offers a compelling experience without those old school red/blue paper glasses. And you can even convert existing 2D video to 3D with a fairly straightforward post-processing technique, which means you don’t have to worry about having special cameras around to create a 3D effect.

Miller High Life gets kudos for responding to the SuperBowl Sunday ad spectacle with this quickly turned-around video. Nice way to ride off the momentum of the SuperBowl. I’ll be curious to see if it takes off.