Let's ask Google!

Today I found an interesting little online hack called Google Image Slideshow.  This utility lets you specify a search phrase for the Google Image Search site, and then automatically creates a little slideshow of the top 64 image results.  You can then embed your search in a URL to send other people to the slideshow with just a click.

I've created a little slideshow using the phrase "future of print" and it's kind of interesting to see what the collective intelligence of web authors, filtered through the algorithmic intelligence of Google, comes up with as supposedly relevant images for this phrase.  (The photo of Oscar the Grouch that came up when I viewed the slide show is particularly interesting and/or unnerving.)

I've set the parameters on this search to be "strict" in order to weed out potentially objectionable images (well, objectionable as defined by the Google algorithm, but that will serve our purposes here).  I imagine the images returned from this search will change over time — and will likely change depending on who actually does the search from which particular local context — as will the results of any Google search.  Check it out if you'd like a bit of inspiration for your own brainstorming on the topic of "how today's online culture views the future of print culture".