The 50 Best Websites of 2011
Time Magazine’s annual round up of the best websites.

30 Freakiest Ads of 2011
Get your freak on with AdFreak’s video list of bizarre ads from the year and see if their crazy worked.

Print’s Best New iPad Apps of 2011
Ad Age’s list of the most impressive publication apps highlights the increasing trend of interactivity required in print media’s digital expansion.

Ads That Entertain: YouTube’s Top Spots of 2011
Kids using The Force, Meme-interupting Aniston and playing baskball with The Bull are only a few of Ad Age’s collection of Top YouTube ad spots.

10 Biggest Mobile Tech Stories of 2011
CNN recollects the top stories that defined our new mobile age.

Tech Winners & Losers of 2011
Mashable details the highs and lows of for the tech industry from Apple and Amazon’s continued success to Netflix’s price hike woes and rebranding debacle.

Art of Menu Best of 2011
The newest division of Under Consideration picks the best of their already stellar collection of menus

15 Most Iconic Images of 2011
These pictures worth a 1,000 words captures the events and emotions that highlighted our year.

Top 20 iPhone and iPad Games of 2011
Have some fun and check out the top iOS games for your iPhone and iPad.

Review of the Year 2011
It’s Nice That Magazine takes a look back at all things that caught their eye and creatively pushed boundaries.

Responsibilities include:

• Office management duties
• Office supply ordering
• Coordination of service personnel
• Reception and phone back-up
• Administrative support for agency president and brand teams
• Meeting and event planning for agency functions

The key attributes required for this position include:

• Microsoft Office proficiency
• Reliability
• Attention to detail
• Responsiveness
• Outgoing and fun spirit coupled with the maturity to handle sensitive issues
• Proactive and effective communicator
• Willingness and ability to take on a wide variety of tasks from the simple to the sophisticated

According to worldwide StatCounter statistics, Google’s Chrome Browser has just slipped above Firefox to become the 2nd most used internet browser. Despite being the youngest browser in the game, Chrome quickly became a favorite among web and design professionals. It’s fast, it’s light, it gets out of your way. And now it’s #2 in the world. Not bad for a 3 year old.

I use Chrome exclusively, along with several of my office mates. But I don’t discriminate! Safari and Firefox are excellent browsers, and Internet Explorer 8 and 9 have made HUGE strides in functionality and speed. But a handful of surfers, about 3% worldwide, are still lashed to IE 6. A browser that is so behind in functionality and so difficult (and expensive) to build websites for that Microsoft apologized for it, and Google dropped support. But for most of those 3%, IE6 is not a choice. Internal software built especially for IE6 and adopted by large companies during The Dark Times (the late 90s) means that employees often have no other option.

[Cue uplifting music]

That is, until Google Chrome released Chrome Frame, a plugin for IE browsers that allows it to mimic the functionality of Chrome for newer websites without losing legacy support for older ones. It’s pretty amazing. And as of recently you don’t even have to bribe your system administrator to install it for you! Once done, any website that includes this little meta tag: <meta content='chrome=1' http-equiv='X-UA-Compatible' />, will attempt to render using Chrome Frame in all its modern, cutting edge glory. And we include it in ALL new websites.

• This week congress started hearing the case for two new bills: PROTECT-IP and SOPA (Stop Online Privacy Act). While these bills seem well-intentioned, they’re incredibly dangerous. Get up to speed on what they mean to you with this great video.
• In celebration of it’s 85th birthday, the Macy’s Day Parade is getting something of a technology update as it intends to go mobile this year.
• Mark Zuckerberg tells employees that a Facebook IPO is coming, causing them all to go absolutely nuts.
• The future of online advertising is here!

Mobile usage increases daily and is expected to surpass desktop internet usage by 2014. Android OS devices, which are known for supporting Flash, are starting to overtake Apple’s iPhone in number of units sold. Why would Adobe decided to stop supporting Flash now?

Adobe’s reaction implies that they don’t believe that Flash will improve enough in speed and security to compete against quicker and friendly HTML5 that already has the lead in mobile browsing development. Add the fact that Apple made it beyond clear that Flash would never be supported on the iPhone and iPad, and you end up with half of the mobile internet market at best being able to view Flash in some capacity.

So, there’s still regular desktop browsing. Why can’t Flash survive there? The relatively new but fast growing concept of Responsive Design prevents the use of Flash. The idea of Responsive Design is to create and develop your site once with HTML5 and CSS3 in a way that allows the design to display correctly to the specifications of the device it is viewed on. For that to happen, the site must be compatible with mobile browsing practices, which again means no Flash can be used.

Flash has had it’s time in the sun for web development. Now, it appears, it’s time to move on.

So let’s break it down, shall we?

We all know Google has been trying mighty hard over the past few years to increase their use of SSL encryption for each of their web-based products. And normally that would be considered a good thing for users. On Tuesday, they announced this encryption was coming to their search service as well.

To be clear, here’s how this works in practice:

• A user is signed into their Google account (read: Gmail, Google+ or others),
• they decide to perform an organic search,
• they click on an organic keyword that directs them to your site,
• you will not be able to track which keyword they used to find your site,
• and you won’t be able to see any of their session information from Google Analytics that is associated with that particular keyword/phrase.

In essence, this means we can no longer track conversions based on organic search, for users that are logged into Google when they perform the search.

The reason for the change, from Google’s announcement:

“As search becomes an increasingly customized experience, we recognize the growing importance of protecting the personalized search results we deliver. As a result, we’re enhancing our default search experience for signed-in users.”

It is important to clarify though, that all is not lost. As it is currently being reported, this change does kill conversion data and keyword information, however we’ll still be able to track generic visitor information (visits, referral sources, etc).

Kindle Fire’s biggest feature is Amazon’s new cloud-based web browser, Silk, providing unlimited cache for quicker page loading and smart browsing.

Some other links of note this week:

• Facebook Timeline improves your stalkability so may want to control your privacy
• Angry Birds, Dead Island and other video games ready to become good movies?
• Fab.com & Fast Company introduces new pop-up shop concept online
• What’s the Deal with Daily Deals? Infographic

As promised, we’ve put together a collection of photos taken from the 25th anniversary party. If you’d like to take a look, you can do so on our Facebook page.

If you find yourself in one of the photos, please be sure to tag yourself – and anyone else you might recognize!

Check out the album now, on Facebook.

Start-up fashion site StyleCaster aimed high to receive and report coveted media coverage that out shown the old guard of Vogue and the like. Ralph Lauren bought all available digital ad space in the New York Times’ iPad App to provide a month-long highly interactive experience.

With high fashion finally taking the digital plunge head on, could digital inadvertently kill their luxury exclusivity?

Some other links of note this week:

• Computer-generated articles increase online
• Amazon poking a stick at a “Netflix for Books“
• Diet Coke’s new brand is ready for it’s close up
• Infographic of the Week: The Psychology of Addiction (of Angry Birds)
• Google adds flight search, comparison and shopping

I think I speak for everyone in attendance when I say the party was an absolute blast. And how wouldn’t it be? Two open bars, and a live DJ had the place feeling less like an office, and more like a club for most of the night. There was even some dancing, too.

If you were here, we’d love for you to leave a comment sharing your favorite moment from the night.

Be sure to stop by again in the next week or so… we had a photographer hang out most of the night and will be posting up photos soon!