idsgn (a design blog)

No longer just for programmers, Google’s APIs are increasingly becoming commonplace for creative mashups—allowing people to “take something cool and make it insanely cool.”

As a part of Advertising Week, Andy Berndt (Managing Director of Google Creative Lab) spoke about the limits being broken in digital media, not by research teams like his, but by users who go beyond the boundaries of the tools being created by companies like Google.

Bernt spoke specifically about the ways digital content, tools, software and applications are being mashed together, customized, remixed, or otherwise re-imagined to become something totally new and exciting. 

What's happening is people are just jamming all this stuff together… I have a customer or a client or both and I'm trying to think of how to make an experience that would either be useful or entertaining or magical or something, and what are all the pieces that I could put together that might create that?

Creative examples

Markus Dreßen created a design portfolio using the Google Maps API (and some imagination). Similar examples include: blaubo and Stas Kulesh.

Uniqlo 1000 makes use of the Google Maps API and Flash video to show people all across Tokyo trying on their clothing in a creative way.

North Carolina-based ad agency BooneOakley makes use of YouTube annotations to create their website entirely within YouTube videos.

Presentation

Audio from this and other presentations can be found at WADV (download MP3), the slideshow is also available online and can be viewed here:

Related: Check out Goollery for a collection of Google-related mashups from around the world.