middledigit.net | jonathan hopkins

Sorry, yet another link to something from Noah Brier (via TIGS). A good one though. If ever there was an example of ‘do as thy say’ then this is surely it. A while back (thinking about it, because he was in the middle of building this) Noah quite rightly said that a brand is what people say it is, not what you (the marketer/brand owner says it is. Someone else, I can’t quite remember now, recently said a brand is not what you say it is, it’s what Google says it is. Both very true, humans rule.

Brand Tags, a side project by Noah, lets people say one word about a brand and collates these into tag clouds for a selection of brands that you can browse. It really is rather clever indeed and has indeed made the front page of del.icio.us today. Nice one Noah, who I’ve just seen has started celebtags too - this feels like the start of something.

Check out what people say about Apple, eBay and a whole host of other brands (including Starbucks, cropped tags below).

Also worth taking a peek at this presentation which inspired the idea.

Happy new year, have a good Christmas (?) etc to everyone.

Ged tagged me over Christmas to help fuel the “My Week In Media” meme that came off the back of this and this. Back then I was sat on a sofa in Northumbria with a patchy broadband connection so I decided to leave a comment directly over at Ged’s, which has since randomly gone AWOL. Now the meme is growing (full list here), I feel obliged to take part, even though as I haven’t been at home or work over the past week so this is a weird twisted version of what would normally be my week in media.

1) What I’ve read
Daily Mail, every single day. I’ve been staying at my parents house and yes I do try telling them.
News of the World, back to front a few times. Hmm.
Hello! magazine. Jesus Christ there are some messed up things to be seen in there. Jordan, Andre and the kids dressed as a Nativity scene in particular.
Guardian, bits of.
Scotts of Stow catalogue, a few times.
Maplin catalogue, as above. They have inverters for about £30 so you can plug 240v mains into your car. I’m getting one.
Microtrends, like loads of other people I bet I got this as a present. I’ve read the intro, the first few microtrends and skipped to Social Geek.
Stuff on my Cat, the book. Was working with Yahoo! a couple of years ago when the site this book is based on was nominated with a Finds of the Year award. The Blue Cross charity wrote to us to complain. The book is still funny mind.
Instruction manuals, lot of. I got loads of amazing presents for Christmas, including a Canon 400D and Guitar Hero for the Wii. As Hugh would say, rock on!
Online I haven’t been as active, with next to no 3G where I was and that patchy broadband connection to cope with. When I did get online I check my feeds in Google Reader and scan Twitter/Techmeme mainly. For an instant hit or just to find something nice and interesting, I check out popurls. Usually I’ll be all over stuff, but in the past week I haven’t.

2) What I’ve watched
As people have pointed out, Christmas TV was fairly cack, so I’ve mainly watched movies and the odd bit of TV.
Transformers, a few times.
Simpsons movie, just the once. Good but is just like one big episode though don’t know what else I was expecting.
Most Haunted, Series 8. I can’t help it. I like it and got the box set.
Never Mind the Buzzcocks. Can’t decide if Simon is a cock or not.
Local news in Northumbria. Genius, nice bit of Look North.

3) What I’ve listened to
Pandora, lots of.
Linus Loves, Stage Invader.
Justice, Cross.
Radio 1 in the car.
Radio 4 at my parents house.
Lots of dog barking.
Kids talking on their own language (Favourite is that “Rips” = Father Christmas)

Now, I’m going to try and get the digital peeps to take part so I tag Iain, Yacco, Flo, Faris and Amelia who I don’t think have taken part yet.