Oh boy, we can’t wait to show you the wonderful little site we’ve just built!

It’s called Whitegoods.

Whitegoods is a real time collection of all the valuable insights, fascinating bookmarks and polarising inside jokes shared by the staff here at the white agency, and while it’s still top secret for a few more days, the below image is an approximate photographic simulation of the interface:

Hmm… yeah hopefully it will make more sense when you see the real thing next week. Stay tuned.

EDIT — It’s now live!

We should get this plate for our Agency / Blog car (because a blog really needs a car). If 6F’s was a car though it would definitely be a Lexus RX 450h – smart, progressive and far less CO2 emissions than any other agency blog.

So you thought search had all but been wrapped up by the folks @ 1600 Amphitheatre Parkway, Mountain View, California. Right? Well think again. The thinkers @ One Microsoft Way, Redmond thought they might reinvent the “I’m trying to find something on the internet” wheel. Those crazy Microsoft tinkerers felt that the internet has well… evolved (overloaded). So why shouldn’t search? The result is badda boom, badda bing. Mmmm many have tried so let’s wait and see on this one… anyone remember cuil?

And in other search news (not really in the same space… and released a little while ago) is the nerdtastic Wolfram Alpha. As they say “Wolfram|Alpha is the first step in an ambitious, long-term project to make all systematic knowledge immediately computable by anyone” Go on give it a tickle.

A search engine with a sense of humour… what?

PS: More Easter Eggs here…

PSS: Wonder if Google has anything up their long sleeves?

It’s a turbulent time in the world of global economics. As tempting as it is to retreat to a cave in the hills and hibernate until it all blows over, it’s always best to face a crisis head-on, which is why we’ve been working on an exciting new project with the Commonwealth Bank. The Bank is reaching out to Gen Ys to find how they feel about the current financial uncertainty and the effect it’s having on their lives. The central focus of this initiative is a forum to be held at the Mint in Sydney, on Wednesday 27th May 2009, kicking off at 5pm.

The forum will give Gen Ys a chance to share their thoughts and also pick up practical tips and information for managing their money day-to-day. It builds on the success of a similar event held in 2006 but now includes support from various social media channels and digital PR.

For more info you can check out the site www.ymoneymatters.com.au or follow the twitter account @ymoneymatters

For those who can’t attend the event, there will be a live webcast on the night with on-demand video and additional research released afterwards.

Sure it was announced a couple days ago… but good news is good news. Yes as mentioned a couple posts ago Australia.com was in the running for a People’s Voice (Tourism category) @ the digitally prestigious  Webby Awards. And guess what? It won. As the marvellous mUmBRELLA reported much closer to the announcement…

“The australia.com site – designed by The White Agency – was the People’s Voice Winner in the Tourism category of The Webbys, which were announced earlier today, Australian time.

The Webby Awards have run for more than a decade. One of their unique points is that when winners make acceptance speeches they are limited to just five words. In 2005, failed presidential candidate Al Gore’s was “Please don’t recount this vote.”

Tonight White Agency boss Miles Joyce said: “Had a taste? Come walkabout.”

Well done to all involved on this very high profile project that deserves the accolades. Go Team!

Twitchhiker is a blog set up by a guy named Paul, who attempted to travel as far around the world as possible in 30 days, relying only on the goodwill of people using Twitter.

He managed to get all the way from the U.K. to New Zealand. Pretty impressive – but he’s probably wondering:

1. What do I do with my 11,566 twitter followers now?

2. Do I really have to go back to the U.K.?

Very happy to announce that that our design for Tourism Australia’s consumer travel site, www.australia.com, has been nominated for a Webby Award in the Tourism category!

This also means that australia.com is eligible to win a Webby People’s Voice Award, which is relies on votes from the world wide community. Please feel free to jump over and vote any time up till April 30th at http://pv.webbyawards.com. Go on, get in there. You know you want to.

You can check it out, along with the other nominees here: http://www.webbyawards.com/webbys/current.php?season=13

While investigating dull coding standards, guidelines and best practices on building mobile websites, I came across a great article titled “Effective design for mobile screen sizes”.

There are many guides and “expert tips” out there, however this one is particularly useful as it uses the new BBC Mobile site as a case study, whilst providing facts/stats on mobile screen sizes that exist in today’s market. A must read for designers/developers and those interested in understanding the methodologies put in place when designing a website for a mobile phone.

Read more here

Taking it to the streets is so 2008. Want to effect change 2009 style? Social media should be your first port of call confirming that the pen (or keyboard) is indeed mightier than the sword.

Nick Galvin, writing in the Sydney Morning Herald, says, “TWITTERERS, bloggers, podcasters and Facebook users are getting behind Earth Hour in unprecedented numbers as event organisers embrace the explosion of interest in online social networking.”

With almost 700,000 online friends in 80 countries, Earth Hour’s John Johnston says almost anything goes to send the Earth Hour message viral and reach the target of one billion participants.

Galvin continues, “The latest effort to push the Earth Hour message is through a new social networking service called 12 Seconds. The 12 Seconds service, likened to a video version of Twitter, allows users to post 12-second videos about any subject that catches their attention. Earth Hour organisers are asking supporters to make 12-second promotional videos and put them online.”

Social revolution is just a click away.

Read the full article here.

A top post from Mr Iain Tate (9 reasons japanese interactive work is awesome) who after Judging the One Show Interactive Awards recently became a little bit of a Digital Nipponophile (that sounds much ruder than it really is). I don’t agree with everything in this post, but its good to take a step back and look at digital on this scale sometimes. I rate the politeness and craft as the two most distinguishing features – they just don’t throw stuff in your face as much, and they always seems to have incredible polish on their stuff.

Speaking of things from the land of the rising sun, these guys are one my top 5 digital agencies in the world… informationarchitects (iA) The digital trends maps they out are amazing, next one due out soon, but latest one here.