The Brilliant creative team blog

At the beginning of the month Apple announced the new version of iTunes... iTunes 10.

With various minor feature updates the only major changes are the introduction of ?Ping?, Apples attempt at creating a social network and a re-designed version of the iTunes icon. The new icon seems to have drawn some controversy towards itself, on the one hand it makes sense to remove the compact disc as sales of CD?s have dwindled considerably, on the other, its just not very ?good looking?.

Whether we like it or not the icon will stay and we will all get used to it eventually... maybe?

It seems plenty of people however don?t agree and have set out to create their own versions of the iTunes 10 icon. Not only are they all far more beautiful than the original but they are all available to download for free.

macstories.net have compiled the ten best icons on the web!

A couple of months ago I wrote about a chap called Dave Hill who?s work I had recently found on the interwebs. Its been a while so I have decided to showcase another artist that inspires me in one way or another.

This month, is all about illustrator Jon Burgerman, a UK based doodle junkie who?s artwork has been commissioned by some huge names and, I?m pretty sure that if you can think of it, he has drawn on it.

I came across Jons work about 7 or 8 years ago and throughout this time his style has never deviated. Some people may view his work with suspicion but every line, fill and curve within his work is well choreographed and very intentional. Once you delve into the detail and start following the lines through the work you really start to find new shapes and build up the ideas behind it.

A visit to his website would be a worthy use of a few minutes of your time, if just to read about what he gets up to and where in the world he is doodling right now.

Over the last couple of weeks I?ve noticed a new feature when I?ve been using Google ? it?s called Streaming Search. This is breaking news on the web, and apparently I?m one of the ?lucky? few who?ve been chosen randomly as guinea pigs for testing.

In summary, Streaming Search causes Google to start populating the page with results the moment you start typing in the search box, and continues to update as you type further. This leaked video shows how it works:


At first glance it appears that the only benefit of this feature is to remove the necessity to hit the ?enter? key. That?s just lazy, isn?t it? But it?s a move which is in keeping with Google?s current battle to stay ahead of Microsoft?s Bing search engine, which seems to be piling on the functionality in an effort to eat into Google?s market share.

The big news is that Streaming Search has got everyone in the e-marketing industry talking about how it will effect Google AdWords. There is a concern that if the search results page updates every time you make a keystroke, then hits on adverts will shoot up causing Click-Through Rates to go down. Furthermore, Streaming Search is also trying to guess what you?re searching for, and therefore limits the competition for top search results.

If this feature is rolled out, then it could result in a period of transition for marketing agencies trying to understand and capitalise on this structural change to benefit their clients.

However, it?s worth noting that Google engineers are famously encouraged to spend 20% of their working day experimenting with pet-projects that interest them, and this currently falls into that category. Many industry experts are saying it might not go anywhere. Watch this space...