I have BIG plans already in motion for this here blog in 2012, so please stick with me over the coming 12 months for more great content. Follow me on Twitter, Google+ or Facebook for instant updates on new posts, as well as links to other goodies I find on the interwebs!

Here we go!

10. Move. Eat. Learn.

While my travels around the world have begun to slow down somewhat, I have not, and will not, back off posting links and information about the adventures of other brilliant wanderlust individuals who document their globetrotting experiences through word, photos and video.

This year’s 10th most viewed post looked at a series of stunning short films put together by Aussies Rick Mereki, Tim White and Andrew Lees who spent 44 days travelling 38,000 miles across 11 countries linked by 18 flights.

If you haven’t already viewed these three films, covering the three main themes of “Move”, “Eat”, and “Learn”, get over to my post and check them out now. You won’t be disappointed.

9. Red Bull: The Art of Flight

Extreme sporting films (or practically anything presented/sponsored by Red Bull) have become increasingly popular these days, and there’s no finer example than Travis Rice’s “The Art of Flight” released this year which has been described as one of “…snowboarding’s most iconic films made over the last three decades.”

In this popular post, I took a quick look at the trailer for this epic cinematic event!

8. 10 Tips for Google Plus Newbies

It’s fair to say that one of the biggest launches online in 2011 was that of “Google+”, the giant search engine’s attempt at dipping their toe in the Facebook-dominated social network pond. I seriously believe that 2012 will see a trend in online users succumbing to “Facebook Fatigue” and turning their backs on the privacy suspect, advertising riddled, impersonal behemoth.

Will Google+ be “the one” that everyone turns to? Only time will tell. In the meantime, however, I set out back in July to make the sign up, adoption and learning process on the newcomer network a smooth one with a set of practical tips.

Who knew readers would actually find them and share them around with their friends and family the way they have.

7. Vancouver Canucks – 2011 NHL Western Conference Champions

In the end, it was clinched by one particularly bizarre game winning goal by Canucks defenseman Kevin Bieksa, but the 2011 Western Conference Final Series against the San Jose Sharks was a beauty. It really ignited the belief in all of us fans that the team may indeed be able to go “all the way” in 2011.

Little did we know…

6. The Darwin Ice Hockey Club

For a bit of fun back in May, I posted a video of one of Vegemite’s 2011 TV ad spots. Particularly topical at the time of launch (NHL Playoffs time), the ad takes a comical look at the World Champion Ice Hockey team located in… Darwin, Australia.

It’s brilliant. Just watch it.

5. What Australia’s Census says about you

Back in July I published a post covering a surprisingly clever and well executed viral campaign and online educational tool launched by the Australian Government to promote the “National Census” which was conducted on August 9th.

Since posting, the page has received over 3,500 views, cementing itself smack bang in the middle of my top 10 posts for 2011.

4. And Raffi makes it 1-0 Canucks!

Oh boy! What a roller coaster of a post-season it was for the Vancouver Canucks and their amazing devoted fans. From the highs of the series win over our playoffs hoodoo team, the Chicago Blackhawks, to the eventual heartache of a Game 7 Stanley Cup Final loss at the hands of the Boston *spit* Bruins, it had it all.

My 4th most popular post of 2011 looked at Game 1 of the Cup Final against the Bruins where unlikely hero, Raffi Torres, slotted the game winning goal in the dying seconds of the 3rd period sending GM Place, and at least one household in North Brisbane, into raptures!

3. Vancouver Canucks Icons & Wallpapers

Who doesn’t love showing off the colours of the sporting team they love?!? Back in May I set off on a graphical journey to create a full set of digital art pieces that my readers, and Canucks fans everywhere, could download and splash all over their digital lives from Twitter and Facebook avatars/icons, to iPhone wallpapers.

The designs were really fun to put together, and have proven to be an ongoing hit with fans of the team.

2. 2011 Rugby World Cup iPhone Wallpaper

Like me, it appears my readers love their rugby. With the big one, the Rugby World Cup, playing out in New Zealand during the Spring, I spent a bit of time putting together a full set of HD iPhone wallpapers for every competing team in the tournament which was eventually taken out on home soil by the mighty “All Blacks”.

Even today, months after the conclusion of the Cup, my designs, which are all available for download, still often rank as the most viewed images daily on my Flickr account.

1. 2011 Queensland Floods: The Big Wet

Without doubt, one of the biggest news stories in Queensland, if not Australia, in 2011 was the massive State-wide floods which occurred back in January, taking the lives of 35 people and affecting the lives of over 200,000 others in 70 towns.

While it was hard for me to really gauge the extent of the natural disaster, images of the capital city, Brisbane, and many of the suburban areas I know well being engulfed by flood waters was one I felt I needed to write about, if only to educate my fellow Vancouverites (at the time) with what was happening back at home.

My attempt at summarising the disaster through images and video proved to be the most viewed post on my blog in 2011, amassing over 17,500 hits throughout the year.

After all, only moments after Path released its beautifully revamped “v2.0″ app into the marketplace on both iOS and Android, respected tech blog “The Next Web” was already touting the improved application as “…the Facebook app that Facebook should have made.”

So what makes Path such a sexy and fun experience for the everyday user? The simple answer to that, as cliched as it sounds, is that it’s the “little things”.

Hopefully you’ll get a bit of an idea of what I’m talking about in the few screens and features I’ll take you through below, but minute, yet noticeable details like the clock icon timeline scrollbar, the paralex scrolling user cover photos and the arc of sharing options that pop out from the prominently displayed share “plus” icon, all combine to provide users with an intelligent, fun and easy-to-use way of sharing details of their daily happenings with friends.

Sure, the user-base at this stage is, like all other relatively new players going up against the likes of Facebook etc, kind of pathetic, but it may only take a few influential users to get the ball rolling within their social online circles to get the buzz and momentum going for Path.

Getting started: Signing up

Signing up for a Path account is an interesting process in that it flips the traditional process by asking for you to select your profile and cover photos first before any kind of email/password combination and demographic info. This way, users get a sweet mini-preview of the beautiful design style that awaits them on the other side of the registration process.

Providing a few more required (and optional) details, you’re transferred to your brand new home stream already featuring the imagery you selected upon signing up. The best way to fill up your rather sparse timeline? Find some friends to add!

Adding Friends

A pretty straight forward process this one.

There’s the usual option of connecting with your Facebook account and finding fellow Path users that way, then there’s the simple option of running through your own personal address book, matching up listed email addresses with registered Path users.

Using either method, or both, should hopefully connect you to at least one or two friends you can start interacting with.

If not, there’s always the option of sending out pre-formatted invitations to your nearest and dearest via a few clicks and access to your phone’s address book. Selecting the phone number or email address of your invitee determines if they will receive their message by SMS or email. Simple.

Creating a “moment”

Gowalla referred to a user’s status update that included text, location data and images as a “story”. For Path users, your updates containing combinations of images, text, tagging of other Path users, location check-ins and even music sharing are referred to as “moments”.

To start composing a “moment” simply click on the red “+” icon at the bottom left of the screen on your home stream and select a media type to submit. From there it’s just a matter of following the prompts to complete and submit your “moment”. Some of the cool things to look out for are:

• A number of image filters are available for when taking pictures with the camera. Unlike Instagram where the filters are applied post-shot, however, the filters in Path are shown in real-time as you actually take the shot. Pretty cool.
• If you wish to let everyone know about a cool song you are actually listening to as you create a moment, Path will find out what song is playing and automatically suggest that song as the one to publish. No searching required.
• You can even, if you’re so inclined, let people know you’ve called it a night by clicking on the moon icon and selecting “Go to sleep”. When you wake again in the morning, hit the wake button and Path will greet you with a weather and temperature update in your timeline. Kind of gimmicky, but cool at the same time.

Commenting and liking

Like any decent social application, you have the opportunity to add comments, likes and in a quirky new move “emotions” to your friends’ posts. That’s right, leave a comment, a heart (like) or a smile to posts that appear on your home stream.

To add comments and likes, look for the grey smilie face at the top right of each post. Just so you know, too, the little number next to the smilie is the total number of people who have viewed that “moment”. A neat little running viewing stat!

Posting to your other networks

The obvious question some of your friends may ask you as you attempt to enlist them to your newfound love of Path, is – “why join if it means I have to post updates to yet another network??” The answer to this one is, you don’t have to!

By connecting your Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr and Foursquare accounts to your Path profile, you can easily and automatically post your “moments” to any or all of these accounts each time you post something to Path.

In a clever, similar fashion to the popular photo sharing site Instagram, each time you post new content, an individual, specific webpage is created for that post so that your friends from other networks can click through to view your individual, shared Path content without requiring an account. The stylish “moment” pages look something like this:

As I sit here typing this, my mate Adam just posted a sweet time lapse video he shot using his phone and posted to his Path profile as well as Facebook and Twitter. Check it out here.

Other streams to keep your eyes on

Your home stream isn’t the only place in Path that you can keep an eye on what’s going on. Access your settings menu by either swiping your home stream screen to the right, or by clicking on the 3-bar icon at the top left of screen. From this menu you can access a number of other options:

• Home – The main Path stream you’ll keep your eye on for 90% of the time and a timeline of your friends’ moments.
• Path – Think of this as your profile and a running timeline of your moments.
• Activity – A running list of what activity has been going on surrounding posts by you and your friends. You can even find out WHEN your friends have visited your path from here.
• Settings – Change your personal details, profile and cover photos, and set your notification settings.
• Sign Out – If you must, you must.

How’s all that sound?

While hopefully I’ve given you enough of a taster above to get you hooked, nothing beats giving it a go for yourself. It may sound like I’m really “pumping the tyres” of this wee app, but honestly, I’ve given a bunch of these types of things a go over the past couple of years, and this is the most fun I’ve had with one of them combined with a truly beautiful and well thought out user interface.

To get your hands on Path now, visit http://www.path.com.

SONY Playstation 3, with the help of the super creative folk at London’s “Studio Output” have this week released a set of viral videos aimed at promoting the PlayStation@Store’s video service which allows users to purchase and download HD movies directly to their personal consoles.

Capitalising on the current image projection mapping craze, the three videos showcase what SONY has dubbed “immersive imaging”. That is, the viewer is immersed in the world they are viewing on screen in a crazy multi-dimensional way that hasn’t, to my knowledge, been seen before.

The mind blowing factor here? Each piece was shot in one take with ZERO post-production or VFX. The fact that there are little men running around in spandex suits manipulating the environment along the way just highlights this amazing detail.

Considering the horror year Playstation has had with the network hacking mess, this viral campaign is a terrific step in the right direction at a smart time of the year!

“Great films fill rooms.”

So how come this particular app, produced by a team of only six designers and developers, has suddenly amassed a user group of almost 10 million? Let’s take a quick look…

What is Instagram?

As mentioned above, the Instagram app allows you to take photos using any iPhone or iPod Touch compatible device and apply a selection of funky-named filters (Hudson, Lomo-fi, Sutro, Inkwell, 1977 etc) that allow you to give your photos a particular look that throws back to the days of Kodak Instamatic and Polaroid cameras.

The result isn’t a perfect, crystal-clear and colour-perfect shot. Far from it in fact, but therein lies one of the hooks. For whatever reason, Instagram, to put it bluntly, allows users to make even the most ordinary, badly composed, horribly lit, lifeless photos look cool. While this gives photography purists the absolute irrits, it does give the average iPhone user a fighting chance when it comes to snapping shots worthy of sharing with their friends and family.

What is responsible for the sudden Instagram craze?

Without question, Instagram’s move to build a community around their app by building in easy-to-use tools for sharing the photos taken with a number of popular social networks like Facebook, Twitter, Foursquare and Tumblr has greatly enhanced their popularity. With just a few easy taps, someone can share a cool shot of whatever it is they are doing or experiencing with their network of friends and family.

For some it eliminates the need to carry around a compact camera altogether, and the results, just like the good ol’ days of the polaroid camera, are instant. You just shoot, filter, caption, geo-tag and share! It’s as easy as that.

5 great online Instagram related services

So without further to do, here’s a list of FIVE great online Instagram related services that will allow you to extend your interaction with the application that’s taking the iPhone community by storm:

1. Followgram

With all of the great things Instagram has going for it, one of the gaping holes in the service is the provision of web-based user profiles. The app is quite rightly built as a mobile experience, but there are times when you might want to check out a user’s details and archive of shots while you’re sitting at a laptop or desktop computer.

This is where followgram.me comes in. By using your already registered Instagram login to gain access, you can have your very own web-based Instagram profile set up within minutes. Perfect!

2. Stickygram

This one is a little gimmicky, but I love the concept and already have friends who swear by it. Stickygram is a simple service that allows you to order your favourite Instagram shots as a set of fridge magnets. Delivered world-wide, the magnets are a perfect gift idea for friends and loved ones allowing them to add a stylish part of you to their lives.

At the time of writing this, you can get your hands on a set of 9 magnets for USD$14.99. Add to that FREE shipping to anywhere in the world and it’s a service worth checking out for sure!

3. Statigram

Like most things in the “Social Media” sphere these days, it’s nice to be able to have at least a bit of an idea as to what content you are “putting out there” is the most viewed, the most popular and/or the most loved.

Statigram allows you to view, or have a number of “snapshots” of your usage of Instagram emailed to you on a regular basis, and in doing so gives you some kind of ongoing insight into what your most popular photos are.

4. Postagram

There’s been a number of times in the past that I’ve thought to myself, gee it would be nice to send a photo of what I’m looking at right now to my Grandparents. I mean, they’re not “online” at all, so sending a simple email with a photo attached isn’t an option, and they live far enough away that I’m not going to be guaranteed of seeing them every other week, so if there was an effortless way of sending them pics with a message attached, I’d be all over it.

What I have just discussed in the latter part of that paragraph above is EXACTLY what the awesome “Postagram” does for you. Install the app, take an Instagram photo, add a message, choose a recipient and mailing address and a cool postcard of your photo (which can be popped out of the card) is sent off by snail mail.

It appears that sadly, Postagram is only available in the USA right now, but I’m hopeful that the service, or some kind of copycat service will be available in Australia and Canada REAL soon!

5. Extragram

Rounding off the list of 5 great ways to extend your Instagram experience is “Extragram” – a beautifully designed “explorer” application that allows you to browse throughout the Instagram user base viewing the most popular photos from users you don’t know, all the shots your friends have taken as well as a full archive of all your own shots.

While Extragram does the same or a similar job to the other services, like Followgram, I have listed above, it does it in the best way I have found from a user experience point of view. Easy to navigate and thoughtfully and beautifully designed, it’s worth checking out if you’re at a desktop or laptop computer.

Once again, you can use your existing Instagram login to gain access, so there’s no extra registrations required – sweet!

UPDATE: But wait, there’s more!

6. Printstagram

With Xmas not that far away, the folk at “Printstagram” offer 5 great printing/gift options that draw on your Instagram creative archive! Posters, miniprints and more can be ordered and delivered worldwide!

I’m just thinking out aloud here, but how cool would one of those posters look on the back of the dunny door?? Get rid of that old calendar from the chemist that features an uninspiring stock photo of an old rusty tractor in a field, and adorn the “throne room” with something eye-catching and creative!

Also, check out the “Minibook” and cute “Tinybook” options for truly unique and cheap gift ideas.

With the results tallied and information gathered from the 2011 Census, the country’s “powers that be” will be more accurately able to plan and legislate for the future with a better idea of what the population is likely to look like in the future.

In the last couple of days, my initial questioning of the relative silence on the event was answered as the Federal Government released a multi-media campaign, consisting of print, radio & TV spots as well as a clever online viral campaign, all aimed at spreading the word throughout Australia.

I wanted to take a few moments to briefly take a look at the online viral campaign titled “Spotlight”, that whipped around the Interwebs today. Although obviously targeted at online Aussies, the interactive piece is pretty damn impressive and should be checked out by anyone around the world working in online comms.

Drawing on information collated during the last National Census in 2006, the interactive presentation takes a look at a number of aspects of your life like where you live, how old you are and what you do for a living, and shows how your situation stacks up as compared to the rest of Australia.

The presentation features an excellent, light-humoured commentary provided by popular Aussie comedian and TV host, Shaun Micallef, who talks you through the mini-survey which lasts just a few minutes.

Like I said, whether you’re an Aussie or not, take a few minutes to check out the “Spotlight” site even if it’s just to appreciate the way it has been put together. Make up some answers if you need to, and at the end of it all, you’ll be presented with a nifty infographic (which, let’s face it, are all the rage these days), which you can then share with all your friends and family on your respective social networks.

How are these same social digital tools influencing whole industries though? The folk at Swedish social travel startup “Tripl” have put together a nifty infographic (I DO love infographics) taking a look at how social media and the interactions that result are shaping the Travel Industry.

Drawing on data provided by all the major players in the social media field, as well as large travel and data sites like Quantcast.com and TripAdvisor.com, Tripl have come up with the following information which they have wisely presented graphically in a way of generating exposure to their brand and interest in their, at this stage, private beta website.

To view the infographic in its full-sized glory, click on the image below.

As a Google Plus newbie, you’ve just set up your profile with any number of fantabulous facts and witty one-liners, but where to from here?

There’s all sorts of reviews appearing coming from bloggers and journalists who have had the best part of the last week to get their hands dirty on the inside. These articles give you a good run down on what “Plus” is all about, but how about some good practical tips?

Here’s my selection of ten or so cracking good tips to get you started:

1. Get your profile privacy settings all sorted.

I wrote a blog post on this very subject earlier this week and I think it’s one that everyone will want to check out early on.

2. Send private, or “direct” messages

There’s no specific feature built into Google Plus to allow you to send what we Tweeters know as “Direct Messages”. Sending private messages to on specific person, however, is dead simple to do.

All you need to do is start creating a post in your stream and make sure that the name of the only person you want to receive the message is listed where you would normally specify “Public” or specific “circle” recipients.

3. Secure your Google Plus short URL

Rip along to http://gplus.to and fill out a couple of details to secure your very own Google Plus short URL. Basically, you’ll be able to turn this:

• https://plus.google.com/100159643379877461280/ into something more like this:
• http://gplus.to/masey

4. Create an “Instapaper” style “Read Later” circle

We all have articles and web pages we come across during the day that we’d love to sit and read but don’t have the time when they cross our paths. Specific bookmarking services launched to help with this problem, like the popular “Instapaper” can now be effectively replicated in Google Plus simply by setting up a “Read Later” circle which you add ONLY YOURSELF to.

Next time you come across a page you’d like to look at later, share it with your “Read Later” circle, then check out your “Read Later” stream later on when it’s more convenient.

Cheers to @rwashton for pointing this one out for me.

5. Learn Google’s text formatting shortcuts

Add some personality and visual appeal to your posts by adding simple formatting elements like bolding, italics etc. By using some simple text shortcuts this ends up being super easy to do:

• _italic text_ ➜ italic text
• *bold text* ➜ bold text
• -strikethrough text- ➜ strikethrough text
• Combined _*italic bold*_ ➜ italic bold text
• **cough** ➜ *cough*

Note: This does not work in instances like [-strikethrough-] {*bold*} (_italic_)

6. Prevent commenting on a post

For whatever reason you want to post a link to a page and don’t want anyone to be able to comment on the post? No problem. Complete the post and submit it to your chosen “circles”.

As soon as you do, you’ll notice a small triangle pointing down inside a circle at the top right of the post. Click it and select “Disable Comments”.

You can also edit and delete the post from here, as well as prevent sharing.

7. Work out exactly who a stream post has been shared with

Scenario: You’ve just noticed a funny post appear in your stream that you’d love to make a comment on. Your comment will be hilarious and witty to those who “were there and would understand”, but may be construed as possibly a little offensive by anybody else. How do you know who your comment is going to be seen by before you make a potential mistake?

At the top of each post to the right of the time stamp you’ll notice the word “Public” or “Limited”. If the word “Public” is listed, then the post can be seen by ALL of the Web and, in turn, so would anything you leave as a comment.

If the word “Limited” is listed, usually this means you are part of a circle(s) that the content has been shared with. If you click on the word “Limited”, you’ll get a pop-up featuring thumbnail profile pics of who can see the post and, in turn, who will be able to see your comment.

8. Use the space bar to help navigate your streams

This is definitely one of my favourites. All you need to do to scroll through a stream page by page, is just hit the space bar. Simple and a nice little usability touch.

9. Get to know your colours

This one is a simple tip that some of you may have already worked out, but for others it’s a good one to learn as it may help prevent you from making a mistake somewhere along the line.

When your posts are designated as “Public” (represented by a green button) before you submit them, it means anyone out there on the Interwebs will be able to see what you post, even if you don’t have them added to any of your circles.

If you only intend to share your post with certain “circles” or individuals, their labels will be blue.

Therefore, remember these simple colour codes:

• GREEN = PUBLIC
• BLUE = LIMITED

10. Mention (or tag) friends in your posts

In a similar way to the way you can “mention” (or tag) specific people in Facebook posts, you can “mention” people who are in any of your “circles” in Google Plus posts by adding the “@” or “+” symbols before their names.

For example, “+John Smith shared this with me and I wanted to share it with you all.”

As soon as you hit the “+” or “@” keys and start typing a name, a nifty auto-select list should appear to help you out.

Don’t forget to “+1″ this post for me and make sure you share this with all your Google Plus newbie pals!

UPDATE: Why use Google+?

It seems one of the early struggles for everyone so far has been trying to convince Facebook fanatics why they should even flirt with Google+. I found this comment left in a discussion thread the other day by a “Chris Withers”. It pretty much sums up, and nails the “allure” (to use his words) of the “new kid on the block.”

I think it does everything Facebook does, but with enough borrowed from Twitter to keep things interesting.

I don’t use Facebook much, because a very high percentage of the people I follow on there have nothing interesting to say. They might be family, or good friends offline, but throw them into social media and suddenly they’re gibbering idiots. Twitter, on the other hand, is all about what interests me. I know very few people on Twitter personally (the occasional tweetup aside), but I check it religiously because I’ve selected people to follow that constantly interest me. The flaw with Twitter is that you can’t please everybody. Someone might follow me on a Canucks game day and then unfollow me when I start RTing dirty jokes the next day.

Now there’s G+. Once it opens up I’ll be able to add friends and family, Canucks bloggers, Whitecaps fans, tech enthusiasts, atheists: people from all the circles who interest me. I won’t need to worry about boring people, because I won’t be spamming my family with hockey or soccer tweets on game day, I don’t need to worry about my 10 year old cousin seeing inappropriate jokes, and I won’t be sending pics of Sunday dinner out to non-family members.

It’s similar to Facebook, and similar to Twitter, but I can keep things segregated. That’s the allure I see.

Before I get started, however, let me quickly point you in the direction of a decent article, written by Mark Sullivan for “PCworld” which looks at 9 plausible reasons to consider eventually switching from Facebook to Google+.

But back to the discussion at hand…

If you were successful in squeezing through the wee crack in the door which led to the fantastical land of Google+, then you, like me, would have probably then embarked on an invite-sending-frenzy making sure you got as many invites out to your “friends” as possible in a bid to turn your “Circles” into something worthwhile. After all, without having friends on what is essentially another, yet slightly different and potentially improved, Facebook-style social network, what’s the point. Right?

It seems almost as quickly as the Google+ invite gates opened, however, they were slammed shut due to “insane demand”. Consequently, we all found ourselves full of excitement and wonder, setting up profiles and sorting out Circles, only to find ourselves scratching our heads wondering what to do next without our chosen invitees making it on board in time.

I, for one, took the moment of solitude as an opportunity to explore and try to find out exactly what sort of privacy controls were available for Google+. After all, the complex simplicity of anything to do with privacy is one of the things that turns a lot of people off Facebook, and let’s face it, after Google’s “Buzz” debacle, I was still a tad skeptical about how I was going to be able to control who saw what on my “Plus” profile…

While, disappointingly it seems* like most details on your Google+ profile are set to be visible to “Anyone on the web” by default, the controls and testing functions available that allow you to go in and get your privacy and profile visibility right, are thankfully easy to find and easy to use. It seems like Google may have got it right this time.

*Granted, this may be in MY CASE only. I haven’t had the chance to back up this claim with evidence from anyone else as, ironically, very few people I know were able to get signed up in time yesterday.

How to set your Google+ privacy settings

So how exactly do you get to where you can start tinkering with the settings that will determine who in your Google world sees what?

Gaining access to your privacy settings is as easy as clicking on your name in the right of the new “Google Carbon” (that one’s for you Gazza – haha!) navigation bar at the top of the Google+ pages and selecting “Privacy” from the sub-menu that appears.

You’ll be presented with a screen that looks like this:

It’s a good idea to go through EACH AND EVERY one of the sections on this page, but for the time being in order to stick to the context of this post, there’s really 2 main things I want you to notice here.

Editing Profile Visibility

Firstly the obvious “Edit Visibility on Profile” button which you can click to be taken to a profile editing page where you will have the ability to set privacy levels for individual fields and sections of your profile. Like I mentioned earlier, it seems (in my case anyway) that the privacy levels for a lot of my profile sections seemed to have been set to be visible to “Anyone on the web” by default. Tsk, tsk, tsk. Not good.

It goes without saying that I have since, therefore, clicked around my profile and shifted all of the privacy settings to my desired levels, while at the same time updating my profile content. A simple process which, in my well-intentioned opinion, should be HIGH on your priority list once you make your way into Google+.

Testing Profile Visibility

Referring again to the “Profile and Privacy” screen shot (below), the second thing to notice is the sweet “See how your profile appears to other users” tool. Thankfully this tool does exactly what it suggests. Type in the name of someone you have added to one of your circles and you can see exactly what they will see.

Let’s take a look at an example where this testing facility can prove to be helpful.

“Johnny” has recently added his boss at work to a “Limited Profile” circle that he has created to add people to that he doesn’t wish to share his full profile with. He enters the boss’s name into the “See how your profile appears to other users” and clicks the “Preview” button.

In doing so, he notices that currently his “Limited Profile” Circle members are able to view his “Relationship Status”. He wishes to change this, so Johnny goes back to the “Edit Profile” view and uses the “Custom” privacy option to pick and choose those circles he wishes to be able to view this particular profile item, effectively blocking the “Limited Profile” circle members from this information.

Makes sense?

Yes?

Sweet! – you’re one the way to having your profile and privacy settings well and truly sorted, ready to tackle whatever direction Google+ takes in the coming months.

If you have friends who you have invited to Google+ who you think would benefit from this information, please share the post with them using any of the share tools in the bar on the right.

BONUS! – Check out the New Gmail Design

By now, you will have noticed that Google have finally decided, thank God, to hire a User Interface Designer and the visual fruits of their labour are starting to roll out throughout the Google suite of applications. Most notably the Google Search interface has received a nice refresh along with Google Calendar.

The one application I’ve been hanging out for a design refresh, however, has been Gmail. Yes, the free email service loved by millions has received a fresh coat of paint and you can now give it a test run for yourself. Here’s how you do it:

1. Click on the little cog wheel icon at the very top right of your Gmail page to bring up the application settings submenu.
2. Click on mail settings to bring up the Gmail Settings screen.
3. Click on the “Themes” tab and scroll down towards the bottom of the available themes.
4. Click on either the “Preview (Dense)” or “Preview” themes.

Bingo! – you’re now test running the new Gmail layout complete with lots of yummy, uncluttered white space!

All you have to do to become an proud World Record holder is sign up on the URDB website, take a look through their brief “Rules & Principles” guide (which merely comes down to being honest and accurate; not hurting yourself, other people or the planet; and not wasting resources in your attempts), choose a record from URDB’s extensive database that you would like to have a crack at (or invent your own), then break the record in front of an appreciative gathering, meticulously documenting the attempt (with video etc) as you go. Simple as that.

You know how you sometimes get so engrossed in surfing around on YouTube to the point that hours of your life are lost, never to be returned? Well the URDB World Records site has the same kind of attentive pull – don’t say I didn’t warned you.

True, a lot of the content/records are pretty silly, but there’s no doubt that there’s some damn impressive achievements to be found throughout the site, like Dan Mackey’s “Most People Flipped Over While Performing A Front Aerial” record, or Mike Hedge’s “Most People Photographed In Mid-Air In A Single Photograph”.

If, rather than wasting precious minutes of your life perusing through the site’s record attempts, you’d like to just find out about the best and most creative record attempts, you can also keep an eye on the URDB Tumblr blog which you can find here: http://tumblelog.urdb.org/. Oh, and there’s an iPhone app too for those of you who are on the go. Enjoy!

This season, talented Flickr member Charlie Lyons-Pardue has taken on the task of composing a little reminder of how the Vancouver Canuck’s have traveled to get to the Western Conference finals, and shows potentially what they have ahead of them. You can download the wallpaper from his Flickr profile here:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/cpardue/5718202289/

Have a bit of an look around Charlie’s image sets while you’re there. He also has a great set of vintage-style NHL team wallpapers for iPhones, and more!

For those of you looking for the Canucks social media icons I put together, you can find them here.

Update!

It’s with great pride and excitement that I can announce that Charlie has now posted an updated version of the wallpaper to reflect the Stanley Cup Finalists and the mighty Vancouver Canucks are, of course, filling the slot on the left of the cup. Click on the image below to download the wallpaper for yourself.

Also check out the official selection of bracket wallpapers from Canada’s TSN Sports Network website. This is one of the best I’ve seen so far!