Trends in Technology: Embracing the Individual & the Collective

This week’s trend coverage ranges from embracing the nuances of the individual to capitalizing on the connectedness of the collective. As Mother’s Day rapidly approaches, I was inspired to purchase a handmade gift on Etsy.com. The press was buzzing with handmade coverage in final quarter of 2008, and I wondered if the trend continued to pick up steam in the first two quarters of 2009. According to Google Trends, search traffic for Etsy has steadily climbed even as press coverage of the handmade trend tailed off. Now, with 2.3M monthly visitors and respectable month to month growth (Quantcast), we’ll have to assume the trend is alive and thrives at Etsy.com.

Need further evidence? Felt is everywhere. Suddenly the not-so-glamorous fabric we used for crafts in kindergarden is showing up in high end home decor and eco fashion. Check out these pillows for the geek in all of us from etsy.com and hand-crafted device holders from British design firm Hard Graft:

Felt Macbook Sleeve from Hard Graft

Eco-Friendly Felt Pillows on Etsy.com

Google Trends for Handmade vs. Etsy

While researching the handmade trend I discovered Trendhunter a portal that “crowdsources” trends from 22,000 members who actively submit their observations from around the world. In plain english, crowdsourcing is essentially outsourcing a task to an unknown group of people/aka the general public, rather than a contractor or consultant. At Trendhunter, the thousands of submissions made by members are compiled into micro trends and trends, which are packaged and sold to clients such as marketers, agencies, and design firms. Members are paid for a portion of the Google advertising revenue generated from their postings, and can benefit from increased exposure to readers. In many ways, Trendhunter is an ingenious business model made possible only through technology, however I can imagine the final product (trends) would flounder without a guiding editorial hand to sift through and weave stories from, well, golden tightsand prison fun scenarios. Any planners or strategists care to comment on their methodology?

Finally before my head hits the pillow, I’ve stumbled across my first completely meaningless crowd-sourced trend (aside from the aforementioned golden tights and prison fun scenarios.) Tonight on Twitter, the term “Facebook Money” emerged as a trending topic. With a little investigation, it was clear it was purely an inside joke that was quickly embraced by thousands of Twitterers. Kind of cool, but was it trend-worthy? Or are massive inside jokes shared among strangers the next trend?

You can now follow me on Twitter @iheartflooz.

A sexy idea for a decidedly un-sexy topic: Google’s Tip Jar

Lately I am completely enamored with technology that allows us to tap into our networks or broader communities to improve our lives in ways we’ve been unable to before. Two months ago I had a crush on Herman Miller’s Thoughtpile contest to launch their new Embody chair. Each week the microsite thoughtpile.org would feature a question, such as “What’s the one thing we can do to improve innovation at work?” and users would submit their answers, which would appear as bubbles of thought rotating peacefully around an axis. Something akin to a Web 2.0 lava lamp. The community then voted on the best ideas, the best of which won a new Embody chair. Sadly the microsite is no longer, but you can find an image here.

TechCrunch has a great note this week on another community-driven idea aggregator: Tip Jar by Google. Tip Jar is a collection of money-saving tips submitted by the web community and compiled using Google’s moderator service. Google’s moderator service was invented for their internal tech talks and company meetings, and allows users to submit and vote on ideas, and the most popular ideas rise to the top. Kind of sexy for an unsexy topic like saving money, no? My favorite idea to date, under the “home” category, states: “Borrow books from the library. Nothing beats free.” So true, so true.

Tip Jar by Google

What are your favorite programs, apps, or sites that allow you to tap into your friends or the web community in a way that’s improved your life? Click on the word “comment” below to share your thoughts.