TPdb (Targeted Proteins Database) is a project we have been working on since September 2006 and we are finally able to begin to reveal some of its features and design. The first fruit of our work is a marketing tool, called “What is TPdb?”. It includes various screenshots of the application’s interface, as well as descriptions of what it does and how.

A post from Lines & Colors, a blog about artists and illustrators, on the frustration of many artist’s websites, but there are many points that ring true for anyone.

Along with a whole host of new tidbits about upcoming software at their WWDC, Apple also relaunched their website. Not only have they updated their rather tired looking global navigation, there is a huge range of effective Ajax-style elements that (mostly) add to the usability of their site. Their (possibly Google-powered - if you check their code) search is a particularly nice example which offers popular shortcuts even before you’ve pressed return. The amount of work and attention-to-detail that has gone into this is very impressive.

Google’s Street View, a new Google Maps feature that uses vehicle cameras to take 360 degree street-level views of major urban areas (so far only in the US), has set the Web buzzing with talk about its privacy implications. The photos are so detailed that one lady, whose cat Monty is clearly visible sitting in her living room window, contacted Google and asked for the image to be removed. “The next step might be seeing books on my shelf. If the government was doing this, people would be outraged,” said the perplexed Ms. Kalin-Casey from Oakland, CA.

Websites are making the most of the images captured too. The Wired blog has started a contest on the most interesting photos found using the new Google Tool that now includes sunbathing coeds, alleged drug deals, and the Google van itself. And the site LaudonTech.com showed an image of a man entering a pornographic bookstore in Oakland, but his face was not visible.

It does raise an interesting question: should Google be allowed to publish detailed intimate snap shots on the internet of people’s private lives? The images are taken in a public place so legally Google is doing nothing wrong - but is it right ethically? Well, we can’t answer that. But what we can do is marvel at Google’s technology.

It’s great seeing such debate about the 2012 logo out there on the web. All the usual arguments are being trotted out, but one of the best pro-arguments can be found at Coudal. Worth a read.

In case you’ve somehow missed the furore - the new Olympics 2012 logo has been revealed. It was devised with help from Wolff Olins (a company some of us have worked with in the past), and they are in the midst of a huge wave of controversy.

We are split as to how we feel about the logo. Some of us dislike it, seeing it as clumsy and patronising in its attempt at appealing to the ‘MySpace’ generation. There was an extreme example of cognitive dissonance in the sight of Seb Coe announcing the logo in a suit and tie. It is like a logo for a nu rave band, the scene of the moment, and it may well feel dated within 6 months.

That said, it is rare for such a high profile logo to be so bold and look so (no other word for it) bonkers - so much so, it would be great if we all ended up loving it. The thinking behind it is solid, and it would have been dull for the logo to have been a polite tasteful design that as Coe put it, would have comfortably sat on corporate polo shirts. A logo is not the brand, so it will be interesting to see how it develops over the years.

Update: Worthwhile further discussion about the logo can be found at Speak Up.