Isn’t it interesting how the results differ when you type the same search in Flickr as Google Images?  Google Images throws up the most obvious commercial images, whereas Flickr tends to throw up much more interesting creative work.

 Try “cat plush” in Google Images and you get this. Lots of cheap, cheesy toy cats. The sort they sell in Toys R Us.

Try “cat plush”  in Flickr and you get this. Really fresh, cool looking, quirky toy cats. The sort they sell in Habitat. 

 Amateur content really can be better than professional stuff

(Weird how Google Images doesn’t see into Flickr - I guess because it’s owned by Yahoo! If you know more than that,do let us know.)

Today I heard someone say that before the Web all communication was one-way, top down: from media producer to passive audience. I know what he meant but it prompted me to start a list of pre-Web forms of conversational folk-media. Please let me know if you can think of other examples and I’ll add them to the list.

So, to kick off:

• Graffiti
• Speaker’s corner in Hyde Park
• Telephone phone-ins and talk radio
• The Soap-Opera Press
• Letters to the Editor
• The Jeremy Beadle platform
• Citizen’s Band radio
• Public noticeboards