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The September issue of Wired UK is running a cool story on Thinglink – check out the online version.

“The things that have the most personality — art, craft and vintage objects — can’t be easily recommended, because they can’t be easily identified,” says Ulla-Maaria Engeström. With her start-up, Thinglink, the Helsinki-based design consultant plans to bring visibility to this “invisible tail” of hard-to-find objects. Users can embed Thinglink’s photo-tagging tool on their websites and set up info-packed hot-spots on their images. “People love to share images — and data,” explains Engeström, 36.

Perhaps the coolest part of the story is the photo: it was shot at design boutique Do Shop in London’s Soho, and all the things are available online through their web store. My favorite piece is the resin Moon Wolf statue I’m actually holding in a leash — you can’t see it in the online version of the image, but look for it in the print magazine!

Exciting news: thinglink.com has just been released to the public.

It’s a simple, free photo tagging tool that makes it easy to add clickable tags to any image on the web.

Any blogger or website can use Thinglink to make the objects in their images clickable. For example, have a look at how the Finnish edition of the world’s largest fashion magazine Elle is using Thinglink to enhance images of travel accessories and cosmetics; fashion and design tableware examples on Hobbyprincess.com; and vintage toys on the blog of an antiques TV show.

Why tag your images? Well, to drive traffic. Pictures invite clicks. According the New York Times, users are 5-15 times more likely to click on tagged images than other web ads.

Your images can contain anything: fashion, sports, interiors, news, a map… and your tags can lead anywhere: link to an online retailer you have an affiliate partnership with, or an article containing more information. You decide.

The cool part about this is that many publishers we’ve talked to love the idea that their images can be re-embedded freely with the tags (select “Embed” from the pulldown on the top left corner of any Thinglink-enabled image).

The tags work on any standard image. Simply copy your image url from your website and paste it to the Thinglink tag editor to add tags. When finished, copy the embed code we provide and paste it to the html of your website. It’s like embedding a YouTube video. Your image file remains untouched. Our JavaScript simply displays your tags when viewers move their mouse over the image.

The embed code works on any website or blog that allows Javascript: Blogger, TypePad, Tumblr, your own WordPress installation. Thinglink tags are standard Javascript, so they work on all standard-compliant browsers (although we still struggle a bit with Internet Explorer) and require no plugins. The tags work for everyone, including users who access your site on their iPhones and iPads.

We love it and hope you will too! Let us know what you think and how you would like us to improve. (Tip: we’re already working on stats for tracking your tags).

To our 4,000 lovely beta testers: we’ll continue to run an invite-only private beta as a test bed for new ideas. If you’re already a member of the private beta, your data is safe and you can access your account at beta.thinglink.com. The new tagging tool lives on thinglink.com.

Happy tagging!

We’re looking for a talented web developer to join our team! Route your way through the flowchart, and send us a short free-form application with your resume attached to ulla@thinglink.com.

Over at ReadWriteWeb today, Richard McManus has a post out on Social Networks for Things. It is a writeup of the DLD panel Ulla-Maaria was on last week. Richard outlines the ideas behind Thinglink and two adjacent services, ThingD and a new startup called rezz.it. He ends with a prediction:

If web 2.0 was largely about social networks for people (which you can certainly argue it was), then the new generation of the web will add things to those networks and create new networks.

It’s good to see people are starting to recognize the emergence of new startups in this space, and advances in image recognition, mobile handsets, product identification, and social networking technologies all combine to make this an exciting time to be working on the “social graph of things.” Read the full post here.

Update: Live notes from the panel have now been posted by the DLD10 team here. Here’s the full video.

Charles Eames, the iconic American furniture designer, once observed:

“Eventually everything connects – people, ideas, objects. The quality of the connections is the key to quality.”

It has taken a good while for the world to catch up with Eames. Things are changing though. Ulla-Maaria will be discussing the shift on a panel on the Internet of Things, hosted by angel investor Esther Dyson at the DLD Conference in Munich tomorrow. Tune in to more videos of the sessions here.

See also Ulla’s account of the loss (and return to) connectedness and quality in her recent TEDx talk.

Now, the verses are a little bit off topic, but The Fixx appear to have been visionary with their chorus refrain:

I think we have a front-runner for the official Thinglink jingle.

The results are in! Design in the Wild photo contest winners were announced this evening by Professor Eero Aarnio and our very own Ulla-Maaria. See the Facebook event for pictures from the awards ceremony and party.

1. The grand prize was awarded to Henri Aho of Vaasa, Finland, for his photo of the Harry Bertoia Side Chair.
A snippet from the Jury’s comment: “There is a clandestine and mysterious air about this picture: a hooded person hurrying up the stairs of a concrete church designed by Aarno Ruusuvuori with a Harry Bertoia Side Chair. Is she on her way to a randez-vous? Or committing something subversive?”

2. City Boy Picnic Barbeque by young Finnish design group Selki-Asema. Photo by Elina Aalto, Finland.
“A young man enjoying his hot barbeque, sausage, beer, and cigarette after a sauna. An urban warrior determined to hold on to the traditional Nordic lifestyle.”

3. Assorted design objects on a table. By Jonas Forth from Vaasa, Finland.
“A beautiful collection of rare classic vintage design objects. This set belongs in the home of a true design connoisseur”

4. Random Lights by Dutch designer Bertjan Pot. Photo by Timo Arnall from Oslo, Norway.
The Jury couldn’t put it better than a commenter on the site: “It is as if someone is trying to sell happiness”

5. Honorary mention from Design Eero Aarnio: Sari Hermiö‘s photo of her cat exploring the EverGreen Watering Can designed by Eero Aarnio.
“A cozy photo that shows a glimpse of a real home with its many inhabitants”

Last but not least, the winner of the popular vote was Helena Hagberg‘s photo of three Iittala lanters designed by Alvar Aalto. It received an honorary mention from Iittala.
“A dramatic composition that presents a classic Iittala product in literally a new light”

Congratulations to all the winners!

Hey there Thinglinkers! Our Design in the Wild photo contest award ceremony will take place at the new Eero Aarnio showroom at Erottajankatu 19 in Helsinki, Finland this evening (Wednesday, 5 August). You can RSVP on Facebook now.

If you are local, be there at 7 pm to see the winning photos, meet design legend Eero Aarnio, mingle with friends, photographers, other designers and design enthusiasts, and of course find out which one of the top 10 voted photos the jury awards with the grand prize, a 1960s design Pastil Chair.

Thanks to Laitilan Wirvoitusjuomatehdas for sponsoring the beverages, including samples of their new ‘design drink’ Laitilan Brandy Long Drink.

For those who can’t attend, we’ll post the results of the contest on our Thinglink profile and here on the blog soon after they’ve been announced.

Thinglink has an amazingly diverse user base of design experts: collectors, entrepreneurs, consultants, marketing specialists, web designers, curators, researchers… the list goes on. What they all share is that they – we – are excited by the idea of communities around design.

So we decided we should pay more attention to enabling communities to happen on Thinglink.

The first thing we want to do is to simply give more visibility to people who are knowledgeable in a specific area. For example, our users include experts in new Chinese architecture, Scandinavian modernism, vintage audiogear, bikes, graffiti art, Russian lighting design, American contemporary artists, Africa, Japan… the list goes on. Other Thinglink users should be able to find these experts and start following their updates.

So we’ll start gathering a group of Thinglink users who are interested in introducing new things and gardening discussion in their own area of expertise. Are you interested in becoming a featured expert? Here are three things we ask for:

- You have a good knowledge base in your area of expertise that you have acquired through your profession, collecting or blogging
- You are interested in conversing with people in your field and sharing posts weekly
- You are willing to contribute to improving the Thinglink catalog in your interest area

Bloggers, collectors, and curators: this is your chance to easily share and increase your expertise in the design community! Sign up or ask more, info (at) thinglink.com