The Social

If you thought Google's capacity for high design didn't go far beyond its primary-colored logo, think again.

The iGoogle personalized home pages have been graced with new flair thanks to the introduction of iGoogle Artist Themes, a way for Google members to do digital interior decoration.

It may not help Mountain View on its quest to organize all the world's information, but it can make some of that information look a little prettier. Microsoft did something like this with Zune Originals, trendy designs for its music players.

"We've collaborated with almost 70 artists from around the world," an e-mail announcement from Google reads, "inviting them to use iGoogle as their canvas by creating unique, dynamic themes for our users to personalize their pages." The imagery in each theme changes continually.

Artist Jeff Koons' 'Google doodle'

(Credit: Google)

This is no small-time operation. Google has pulled out the stops, with contributions from artists and architects like Jeff Koons, Michael Graves, Philippe Starck, and Yann Arthus-Betrand, as well as fashion luminaries like Diane von Furstenberg, Tory Burch, Oscar de la Renta, Marc Ecko, and Dolce & Gabbana. A few music artists like Coldplay, the John Butler Trio, and the Beastie Boys also are present, as are pop-culture figures like BoingBoing's Mark Frauenfelder, Jackie Chan, The Wiggles, and...Lance Armstrong.

To celebrate, Google will host an art-themed party Thursday night at a nightclub in New York's Meatpacking District, the upscale shopping and nightclub enclave that lies conveniently adjacent to the company's sprawling Gotham satellite office.

In addition, the Google.com logo has been tweaked by Koons for the day.

Women's-focused media and advertising company Glam Media has acquired StyleMob, a small social-media site consisting of a blog and some community features pertaining to fashion. Financial terms were not disclosed.

The rumor was first reported in Valleywag earlier on Thursday, where blogger Nicholas Carlson added that StyleMob's founders "weren't happy" about the acquisition. Glam Media recently raised significant venture funding and hinted that it would go in part toward purchasing smaller companies.

StyleMob, centered on "street fashion" rather than the runways of Paris and Milan, had already been a part of Glam's advertising network prior to the acquisition. As it turns out, the deal was actually closed earlier this year. "Glam Media did acquire StyleMob, a fashion social media site founded in early 2007. All three employees are now with Glam," Glam Media public relations director Caroline Hacker said in a statement. "Co-founder Adam Souzis was previously announced as executive director of Glam Labs, the technology research arm of Glam (on) February 4th."

Recent months have seen a number of acquisitions in the fashion-media start-up space, including some by women's blog network Sugar Inc. Glam, meanwhile, has stayed relatively mum on purchases, choosing instead to expand its advertising reach.

(Credit: Cargo Cosmetics)

HD DVD, just in case you didn't get the word, you're toast. The cosmetics industry says so, and would like to blow you a high-definition kiss goodbye. Mwah.

Well, sort of. Cargo Cosmetics has launched a new line called Blu_ray, designed for makeup artists who need to adapt to high-definition cameras. Design blog Notcot notes that it's marketed toward filming, photography, bridal makeup jobs, and other occurrences where high technology means that the camera really doesn't lie--those HD cameras can highlight any flaw.

In case you were wondering, it's able to skirt copyright regulations by calling itself Blu_ray rather than Blu-ray.

If you read that chick-lit classic Bergdorf Blondes (I'm proud to admit that I did), you'll probably recall the scene in which the shopaholic female protagonists hold a military-style planning session in advance of the legendary Chanel sample sale--a chance for them to snag the high-end designer goods at staggering discounts, the only caveat being that hundreds of other viciously competitive Manhattan women were also hoping to get their hands on the same stuff.

It was only a matter of time before that sort of upper-crust cutthroat shopping hit the Web.

Enter Ideeli (pronounced "ideally"), which debuted Monday after several months of soft-launch. Described as a "red-rope online shopping community," Ideeli is an invite-only site that hosts high-speed sales of luxury goods (so far, just accessories) at 50 to 90 percent discounts and keeps its members in the loop through e-mail and mobile alerts to let them know when a sale has started.

Quantities are limited and can sell out within minutes--if this sounds familiar, it's because it's a model pioneered by rapid-fire sale sites like Woot.com, which has built up an enviable cult following, and the girlier Delight.com.

But as the luxury market warms up to the Web, the Woot model is being applied to sites that are more Sex and the City than Star Trek. Following in the vein of "velvet rope" social networks like ASmallWorld (for the jet set) and Metrofunk (for the club set), Ideeli and similar sites like Gilt Groupe (which hosts high-end online sample sales), are invite-only.

Ideeli has some twists thrown in the mix, too. The site offers a paid "first row" membership ($7.99 per month) that enables mobile alerts and also allows for an hour of early access to sales.

It's obviously not for everyone. Even considering the discounted prices, these are still luxury goods, and hence typically cost a few hundred dollars at the minimum. Some pragmatic shopaholics aren't willing to plunk down that kind of cash without seeing the item in person, or with that kind of impulse-buying required. But some money types are banking on success: Ideeli announced Monday that it has secured $3.8 million in capital from Kodiak Ventures and a handful of angel investors.

Snobbish? Totally. But so are Apple fanboys, for the record. We also happen to have Ideeli invites available for readers: go to ideeli.com and use "cnet" as your invitation code.

(Credit: Henri Bendel)

According to the PSFK blog, Manhattan's legendary luxury department store Henri Bendel is so notoriously old-school that it launched its first Web site a month ago. But the retailer is moving a step further into the Digital Age by opening a holiday gadget "pop-up store"-- curated by bloggers--inside its Fifth Avenue space.

Last year, Bendel had a holiday shop centered on the youth-oriented mobile phone carrier Helio.

But for 2007, Popgadget, which caters to female readers who appreciate both style and function and is staffed by a team of writers around the world, has selected an array of about 20 gadgets to be sold at Bendel for the duration of the holiday season. The "pop-up store" apparently opened on Monday; I might have to go check it out.

As for Bendel, this is probably a smart move for the store. The upscale women's fashion hub, which first opened in 1895, has become closely associated with the young and tech-savvy Gossip Girl crowd, so the displays of Prada cell phones, Archos portable media players, and high-end Griffin iPod accessories won't be particularly out of place.

But if the selection (or the luxe atmosphere at Bendel) isn't quite your thing, there are other holiday tech shops that have sprung up around the city--like the Wired Store, which opened in SoHo last week.

Rainbow-hued blog network Sugar Inc. is on one heck of a shopping spree: last month, the women's media company purchased social shopping site ShopStyle, and now it's bought fashion-centric blog hub Coutorture Media.

No financial terms were disclosed.

Coutorture, which will remain a standalone site despite the new Sugar affiliation, isn't a blog network in the traditional sense. The 230+ blogs that it counts under its trendy umbrella aren't officially run by the site, nor are they part of an advertising network like Glam Media; they're the fashion-related blogs run by Coutorture readers who have applied to become part of the site and run a chance of extra hits if their headlines make it to the front page. (Internet historians: Remember WebRing?) The main Coutorture.com site also offers original editorial content.

With the acquisition, Coutorture editor in chief Julie Fredrickson will stay at the helm, and co-founder Phil Leif will take on the role of Senior Engineer at Sugar Inc. The site, meanwhile, will be infused with technology from fellow Sugar buy ShopStyle.

Clearly, Sugar Inc. is pursuing an aggressive acquisition strategy here, and company CEO Brian Sugar indicated in a chat with CNET News.com that these deals are far from over. He also quelled any speculation that Sugar Inc. itself was for sale, a possibility that several bloggers have raised.

"This company is absolutely not for sale," he asserted.

I'd Digg you if you were cuter, buddy.

(Credit: NerdyShirts.com)

...and it's probably yourself, or maybe your mom if she uses Digg. Think of it as social news gone emo. The "Digg button" has become one of the most universally recognized symbols of Web 2.0, and now NerdyShirts is selling this cotton gem at a sale price of $14.98.

The Coin-Operated blog notes that the only way to get more Diggs with this T-shirt is to get punched in the sternum. It figures, doesn't it? As in, "Go home, nerd, and go back to 'burying' fake iPhone rumors."

Online T-shirt retailer Threadless has announced it will be opening its first brick-and-mortar retail store in its hometown of Chicago next month. The store will open its doors on Friday, September 14, and will celebrate the launch with two free concerts that night (one all ages, one over 18).

Threadless has been hailed for its innovative business model, which it calls an "ongoing T-shirt design competition." Creatively inclined fans can submit their own T-shirt design ideas, and winning selections can rake in $2,000 in cash for the designer. There are plenty of quirky features, too--if you submit a photo of yourself wearing a Threadless T-shirt, for example, you earn a discount on your next one.

Threadless' in-house artist works on the store's 'mashup window paintings.'

(Credit: Threadless)

The company, which was started in 2000, has received more than 60,000 submissions and boasts more than 300,000 members.

"Sneak peeks" of the new Threadless store have been appearing on the company's news blog throughout the summer. They're clearly going for the same kind of tactics that made their Web site famous: in lieu of shopping bags, the store will use recycled cloth bags that can be returned to the store in exchange for a $5 discount; the store will also feature frequently changing artwork to match its current T-shirt designs.

(Credit: Beautiful Vending)

The concept of a hair-straightening vending machine didn't make a whole lot of sense to me off the bat, but perhaps that's because my hair is naturally arrow-straight and I'm always drowning it in goo in ill-fated attempts to give it a little bit of life. But my curly-haired friends assure me that--especially in these humid summer months--hair straighteners installed in the bathrooms of bars and clubs would be a godsend.

And, yes, they'd be willing to pay a bit of cash to use them.

A company called Beautiful Vending is doing just that: manufacturing hair straighteners "for those occasions when sleek and sexy turns to shock and horror," and have installed over 500 in bars, gyms, shopping centers, and nightclubs across the U.K. (Why, again, do the Brits get all the cool after-hours gadgets?) For the equivalent of $2.00, you are treated to two minutes of frizz-busting heat that'll

It doesn't look like there are any installed in the U.S. just yet. But since blown-out and straightened hair is more or less the uniform in such enclaves of excess as Manhattan's Meatpacking District, it shouldn't take too long before club managers realize they can capitalize off female (and male, if Jared Leto is any indicator) patrons' life-or-death need to keep their tresses tamed.

(Via The Cool Hunter)