Pizza My Heart

When a pizza craving hits me, I rarely opt for the chain restaurant variety. I typically stroll up a few blocks to my favorite neighborhood joint or bust out the Pillsbury dough (yep, Pillsbury) and whip one up on my own.

Domino's, however, is starting to tempt hungry people like me with its technology offerings. They are testing pizza tracking in 3,200 of its 8,000+ stores in the U.S. For safety reasons, customers won't be able to know exactly where the driver is, but the automated system can say whether or not the pie has left the store.

Pizza service technology (for lack of a better term) has taken shape in recent months. Papa John's and Pizza Hut have both introduced text-to-order and Dominos.com allows customers to rank pizzas created by others. The last time I checked, there were 11,800+ "registered pizzas," ready for ordering. Social networking for pizza? I doubt that is the last new media pizza offering we'll see this year...

Everyone's a Foodie

Whether I'm in a hotel for business or pleasure, I find myself browsing through all of the provided reading materials (save the Bible tucked away in a drawer). Last night, I discovered a Seattle magazine with a picture of some amazing blueberry pancakes on the cover. "Breakfast for dinner would be great," I thought to myself, yet decided on some standard room service fare instead.

Everyone, it seems, is a foodie these days. From culinary mini-classes at Williams-Sonoma to 30 Minute Meals recipe books, who doesn't think they can be the next Thomas Keller? Gourmet.com just relaunched their site, which is a clean and easy-to-navigate version of it's predecessor. It's yet another resource for everyday people to find inspiration for their upcoming meals.

Photography has played a big role in this shift. With Flickr tagging (my last "food" search yielded 2.477MM results) and sites like Tastespotting (which I have blogged about before!), culinary inspiration does not just come from the higher powers anymore. Every time I'm in the kitchen, I often have the need to grab my camera and snap a few macro shots myself.

So, maybe the person that took the blueberry pancakes picture wasn't a self-proclaimed foodie. But his/her work was enough to get me thinking about possibilities in the kitchen...and what my next brunch should look like.

Is that a pita in your pocket, or...

I typically think of my best business ideas while I'm out running. I've considered everything from fashion consultant companies to snack food stands to boutiques but I still haven't come up with something as brilliant as the Pita Pocket Bag.

So a few people may laugh when I pull it out at Nordstrom or J.Crew, but how much more fun would that be than your standard Coach wallet? While the burger phone from Juno is #1 on my food-items-turned-accessories list, the Pita Pocket Bag is a close second.

Material Girl

Ah, Tuesday. The day that DailyCandy Deals are delivered to my inbox and I am suddenly inspired to do some online shopping. There is nothing like the thrill of finding a good deal, especially when it's on something you've been coveting for a while. I've had my eye on a pair of brown boots recently, ever since I saw them on a very stylish girl near Union Square.

After a few rounds of Googling (since I am a hardcore comparison shopper and I like to see lots of images before I purchase something), I stumbled upon Polyvore.com. It's like collages + shopping + your own closet, all rolled into one. You are able to add items to a "set" and then save it for other users to view. This gives everyone the freedom to create outfits from items all over the web, which obviously isn't possible when you are cruising around on specific e-tailer sites. How else could you virtually combine a shirt from J.Crew with a dress from Nordstrom?

Even cooler still, is the fact that you can embed Polyvore.com code onto your own social networking page. All of your friends will be able to see your favorite outfits and maybe tell you if the date outfit you like maybe isn't a good idea after all.

Elf Yourself. Your friends. Your sister. Your co-worker...

Flashback to 2006.

While I am sitting at my desk at work minding my own business, a curious link gets emailed to me. Something about elves, it reads. Of course I click on it, only to find myself laughing hysterically at a small dancing elf with my coworker's face affixed to its body. The elf moves awkwardly across the screen, flashing a few hints of spirit fingers now and then.

Marketing gurus hailed this amazing ElfYourself.com concept as one of the most successful viral campaigns to date. With 11 million elves created in just 5 weeks, who could argue?

Ah, and now we head back to 2007.

Based on the success last year, the elves are back. After a launch in mid-November, the site has already had more than 41 million elves created, crushing all industry expectations. It equates to 35 elves made every second.

Interestingly enough, not many people can name the brand responsible for this stroke of genius. OfficeMax (yes, that's who it is) has a logo placed on the page but doesn't incorporate any other branding into the site. While much of the success can be attributed to the fact that it isn't covered in advertising, brand recall should still be a consideration.

For those of us who aren't big fans of little people in tights, there is also ScroogeYourself.com.

Tag, You're It

Thanks to my new Canon SD850 I have been able to get back on the photo-taking bandwagon. I am also a total Flickr junkie and can get lost in the "interestingness" pretty quickly. My one issue is that I am extremely lazy with tagging, and admittedly very uncreative. For example, my recent zoo trip resulted in the following tags:

zoo
animals
San Francisco
nature

Hm. I'm not sure people are going to be coming in droves to view my pictures, but "zoo" is listed as one of the top all-time tags on Flickr. (As a side note, "macromondays" is another Hot Tag that I found on Flickr. I will definitely be checking those out.)

While Flickr continues to build its database of tags and categories, other sites have been following suit and trying to get their users to label their information. ThisNext, a social shopping site that I have mentioned in a previous post, has launched a tagging initiathat encourages users to label items with "lux".




















I think is a great promotion that will increase membership on ThisNext.com, and also build community around products that are truly "lux". It would be great to see eLuxury (and other brands) start to view tagging as a marketing tool. By leveraging tagging, a tool that people on the site will use anyway, eLuxury could also further associate their brand with the luxury goods that they offer (a true differentiating factor when compared to other e-commerce sites).

Those Are as Good as Money, Sir...

Ah, the ol' beer I.O.U. "C'mon, help me do ________" and I will buy you a few beers. Unfortunately there hasn't been a way to keep anyone accountable...until now.

Foamee is a free service that allows users to keep track of who they owe beers to (and vice versa). It is based around Twitter so each person must already have a Twitter account. I can already see a trend of other Twitter "applications" whereby more and more people will start following random companies and personalities. There is a woman who is trying to lose 10 pounds and she is seeking support from the Twitter community. With 201 followers so far, it's not a huge number, but it is interesting to see how people are responding to someone that they don't know much about (just 140 character snippets every now and then).

Directionally Challenged

Oh the image of the classic family road trip. Five people piled in a van, bursting at the seams with mismatched luggage. The resident navigator is riding shotgun, head tilted, trying to make sense of a map that had been stuck in the glove compartment since the beginning of time.

Nowadays, consumers are creating their own maps and experiences. Imagine a time before MapQuest and Google Maps! No longer does the navigator struggle with locating highways on a complicated map- they are able to read turn-by-turn directions and even find businesses along the route.

Companies are even starting to think about providing mobile guides for certain cities. While maps are often left in the car or lost, mobile phones are an extension of today's consumer. Do Me ... London, a provider of mobile entertainment guides, recently launched information for London. Users can request a tour via SMS and then a link is provided so free information can be obtained. Including:

Index of 80 attractions
Free audio guides
Finding tips about the city

While the site is not flashy or fancy, the concept is quite advanced (not to mention it will begin to open up opportunities for advertisers). The social aspect will continue to evolve as well. On the Do Me ... London site, there is an area where consumers snapped photos of themselves using the product. I could eventually see users submitting reviews of landmarks and providing travel tips.

Will the family road trips of 2010 have everyone Twittering and Whrrling and Yelping and Google SMSing from their 6th gen iPhones?

whrrl-y gig

I’m sure many of us use Twitter and Yelp and wish there was a combination of the two. I, for example, often find myself somewhere trying to send an SMS to Twitter about a certain restaurant/landmark/etc. because I can’t write Yelp reviews while I’m on the go.

Whrrl, a new service, hopes to aggregate our fragmented social activity by providing a way to track/map/post/edit things with their spiffy technology. Their site is a combination of a map (that visually shows reviewed or “touched” places) and content (where you can write your own reviews, schedule a “meet up” with a friend, etc.). What’s even cooler is that users also have the ability to do almost all of the same things directly from their mobile devices. So if you’re eating at a new restaurant and can’t wait to tell the world about the great chocolate lava cake you’re eating, you can send a quick review (and pictures!) to a short code. These items will be posted to your feed and to relevant locations on the map.

Clients with brick & mortar stores could potentially offer coupons to drive in-store traffic. Since Whrrl is a brand new site, the opportunities are endless…

Additional links:

http://www.whrrl.com/faq.html

http://mashable.com/2007/10/23/whrrl/

Gu/Sport Beans/Luna Bars/Shot Bloks Are All Good For You

Since I signed up for the Nike Half Marathon on March 1, it has been marked on my Google Calendar. All caps. I remember entering it in there and thinking it was eons away. I had all the time in the world to build endurance, find the right socks that wouldn't give me blisters, determine my Powersong and break in my new shoes.

And finally, the big day is almost here! This coming Sunday at 7 am I'll be heading out from Union Square and running my first race ever. My life has recently been a frenzy of reading Runner's World, going to the chiropractor, taking pilates classes (my core has to hold me up during those uphill climbs!) and eating ungodly amounts of carbs. If it's one thing running has given me, it's the ability to eat as many bagels as I want without feeling bad about myself.

Nike+ has been a big help in motivating me to run faster and run better. I'll definitely have my iPod with me on Sunday, even if I don't have my headphones on the entire time.

Maybe after this race is done I'll have more time to blog!

Check out all the race info and mayhem on the site: nikemarathon.com

Who Are You Calling Crazy?

It's never fun to be the person to order lunch for a huge group. Everyone has their little preferences, and even when it's all down on paper, it's hard to catch all of them. Hold the mayo. Extra dressing. No dressing. Chicken instead of shrimp. Side of vegetables.

Crazymenu.com is here to save the day! With their innovative tools and applications, they are trying to make lunch-ordering drama a thing of the past. The Group Order tool allows users to enter their customizable orders and then compiles them to be faxed, emailed or phoned directly to the restaurant. Another cool feature is Pick-A-Place, which is what you can use to send restaurant suggestions to a group of friends and then everyone can vote from their own computers. All available restaurants can be located by address/zip code.



No longer will you reach for a take out menu when you're out at your favorite place. It's refreshing to see that even the restaurant industry is developing solutions for today's sophisticated Web user.

There's a Party in My Tummy

I tend to get insatiable cravings for Japanese food on a weekly basis. And while I love dragon rolls and and yellowtail and rainbow rolls, nothing makes me happier than a bento box full of other goodies. Chicken teriyaki and tempura are my favorites and seeing both of them presented on a giant lacquered tray is quite awesome.




Some very creative (and digital!) people have combined their own love for bento boxes with the blogosphere. While food blogs are still good sources of recipes and cooking tips, I have been keeping up with bento blogs too. They are colorful, fun and inspiring...plus they make me think about the lunches I used to take to school when I was little. Trust me; nothing in my Cabbage Patch Kids lunch box looked nearly this cool.



Buon appetito!

Bento Yum
Lunch in a Box
Kitchen Cow
Adventures in Bentomaking
Flickr member Sakurako Kitsa (amazing bentos)

School's Out

Attending college in San Diego meant ditching lectures in favor of laying out on a beach, with palm trees swaying overhead. Rainy days halted everything; students stayed at home, crippled by the fear of getting wet. When your footwear options range from light brown flip flops to dark brown flip flops, this inability to function in inclement weather is justified.

Ah, if only my undergraduate career had coincided with the explosion of user-generated video and social networking! I would have been able to bask in the sun and plop down on my couch later in the day with a lecture video from Art History class. In the case of the current students at UC Berkeley, they will soon be able to access full course lectures through YouTube. The university has over 300 hours of recorded courses that be found on their branded channel, featuring subjects such as chemistry, biology and physics. They are even offering a course on search-engine technology.

Will lecture halls across the country soon become even emptier? With the lure of beaches (in some cases!) and the ability to watch videos at one's leisure, students may not have to show up in-person for most of the school year.

Hint of Mint

I like to shop. A lot. And not only do I enjoy retail therapy, but also: going to the movies, eating out (while cooking is enjoyable, there's nothing like trying a new restaurant, hence my Yelp addiction) and exploring the city's endless festivals and museums. Combine all these activities together and you have the potential for a budget disaster. Living in San Francisco is not cheap by any means, and sometimes you have to sit down with a calculator and make sure the sorbet/wine bar/fancy jeans/running gear purchases aren't going to suck up the rent funds for the month.

Luckily the internet gods have been looking down on us financial nitwits and have come up with a solution for money management. Mint.com is a free web-based application to help manage personal finances (and it just recently came out of beta).

What's great is that you can manage all of your accounts from one central site. The main page can be linked to all of your accounts (credit cards, checking and savings accounts) and Mint.com will automatically categorize your purchases.

Not like I needed a pie chart to tell me that I spend more on necklaces and scarves than I do on groceries...

An Apple a Day...

I've recently picked up a semi-lame habit. When I order something at a restaurant that is accompanied by french fries, I've been substituting them for a side salad instead. While I'm the self-proclaimed queen of fried food, I've tried to steer clear of anything that will give me a serious case of eaters remorse the next day.

But let's be honest here- when I do choose to eat fries, I will go all out. Sweet potato fries and garlic fries in particular. Imagine my dismay when I saw that Burger King (oops, "BK") is going to be selling apple fries: raw apples cut to look like french fries. Are we so desperate to get kids to eat fruit that they must now look like something deep fried? And if parents are hoping to introduce fruits and vegetables into their family's diets, I'm guessing they should be turning away from fast food restaurants in the first place (unless you are in a dire road trip situation, of course!).

I hope that my zucchini isn't going to start masquerading as cheeseburgers.

Are You Cereal?

When I lived in San Diego, my uncle would request boxes of French Toast Crunch cereal since the grocery stores in the Bay Area had stopped stocking it. Of course, this was back when it was originally shaped like little pieces of french toast; now they just look like your typical sugary cereal. You'd think that with so much other good food at my disposal, he would have requested things like California burritos or fish tacos.

Lucky for us, San Diego (more specifically, La Jolla) is also the home of some healthy eats. Kashi, a company that is known for its "seven whole grain" foods, was founded there back in 1985. 50 products later, they are a key part of many hiking trips, breakfasts and afternoon snacks across the country. Their next project is a bold venture into the social networking space. Jeff Johnson, Senior Brand Manager, said that the company acknowledged the growing need for consumers to share health information/tips online.

Functionality on the site includes participation in daily health challenges, such as taking 30-minute walks or skipping coffee, all based on user-interaction with each other. There is also more robust content available to visitors, such as articles and recipes. While many brands have failed at adding similar tools to their sites, Kashi can capitalize on the huge segment of users researching health information online.

I highly doubt that there will be any French Toast Crunch networks built anytime in the near future, but I sure would enjoy anything based around waffles (anyone remember Waffle Crisp?).

Shoppin' All Over the World

The last time I went shopping at Banana Republic, I scored the trench coat I had been lusting after for a while. I slung it over my arm while I continued to peruse the racks of jersey wrap dresses and cotton chinos when suddenly a woman stopped me dead in my tracks.

Crazy lady: "WHERE did you find that trench coat???!!"
Scared Lindsay: "Up by the front...by the main entrance..."

I'm not sure she even heard the last part of what I said because apparently the glossiness of the black buttons on the coat took over her and whisked her away. It's a known fact that we all like to check out what other people are buying. Whether it's at the grocery store (I particularly enjoy the people that buy diet soda and piles of frozen TV dinners) or a fancy little boutique, watching real-time purchases around us could ultimately impact on our decisions as well.

ThisNext.com, a "social shopping site," recognizes this consumer pattern and has tapped into it with their ThisWorld shopping activity map. Based on registered users (and visitors!) and their browsing patterns on ThisNext, bubbles will pop up in real-time, showing what people are shopping for in certain areas. Genius. Following somewhat in Twitter's footsteps, who paved the path for micro-blogging, ThisWorld is an interesting peek into popular products around the globe.

Now, I'm just waiting for it to get chilly enough to wear my trench coat.

Grid Lock

Today's obsession with perfecting images is almost exhausting. Make them crisper. Adjust the printer calibration. Too much cyan...too much magenta. In a world where 7.1 megapixel cameras are the norm, shouldn't we appreciate those little dots that help make them possible? I happen to really enjoy pixelation. I think there is some nostalgia that lives within any pixelated image; almost a slight homage to Super Mario and his original 8-bit self.

A contemporary German artist, Gerhard Richter, is showing off his own appreciation for pixels in the Cologne Cathedral. Based on his 1974 painting 4096 Colors, the window is made of 11,500 four-inch "pixels" cut from antique glass in 72 colors. Because some hues in his original design were "historically inaccurate or too pale," the artist modified the entire palette to make each piece stained glass-friendly.



This convergence of technology, religion and art is fascinating and unexpected. While most people are used to seeing cherubs and religious references in every corner of churches and cathedrals, this is a modern update that true geeks can appreciate.

Time to Go

I'm not typically a jumpy person, but when my cell phone suddenly vibrates on my desk while I'm in the middle of working, it's often startling. I then get this feeling of anticipation, guessing for a fraction of a second who possibly could be texting me during normal business hours.

At 2:21 pm this afternoon, Yahoo! texted me to let me know that their new Go service (mobile internet) is now available for my BlackJack. And, since I am always one for new/nerdy technology, I downloaded it immediately. The interface is clean and very easy-to-use. It's centered around what they call a "carousel," which you can use to scroll through various Go widgets (Flickr, Mail, Finance, etc.)



It's probably going to suck up a significant amount of data to use, but it will definitely come in handy when I'm...well...on the Go.

Media Makes Me Hungry

I am notorious for watching the Food Network while I eat dinner. I have no problem with fixing myself a huge steak and plopping down on the couch, flipping to channel 35 and listening to Emeril tell me about pot roasts and parfaits.

It seems that the joy of cooking has taken shape across all media, and its presence online is no exception. I am a loyal reader of Slashfood (a site that gets fed into my Bloglines, of course) but suddenly I find myself checking many other obscure food sites as well. Gone are the days of merely posting recipes; consumers are now actively posting instructional videos, step-by-step photos and networking with each other. Here is a list of my favorites:

1) SmittenKitchen
First of all, the name is adorable. Second of all, the photography is so amazing that you find yourself drooling for hours. I am a fan of the "skyscraper cakes" entry, and the woman behind it all seems to have quite a loyal following already.

2) Taquitos.net
I come from a family that loves to snack, so what better way to find out about the latest and greatest munchies? Taquitos.net features reviews on chips, cookies and everything in between.

3) Tastespotting
A place to showcase pictures of food. 'Nuff said. Caution: do not visit this site on an empty stomach.

4) French Laundry at Home
For those of us who will never experience Thomas Keller's genius at the actual restaurant, we can at least watch this guy attempt to make recipes from the cookbook.

5) TastyFood TV
A "Lifestyle Food TV Network Community for Video Sharing," with helpful user videos. Some of them are lengthy (7 min for tiramisu) and others are much more simple (egg poaching).

6) CookThink
This site poses the simple question "What are you craving?" and then answers it with their database of recipes. This is great for when you want something specific but aren't sure how to prepare it, or what to pair it with.

7) Nook & Pantry
More scrumptious food imagery. Not much else to say, other than they had me at their Nutella Stuffed Brioche French Toast.



Now, please see my previous entry on Nike+. After you read all these food sites, you may need to go for a run or two also. ;)