Soot wants to help you 'map your world' using AI
It's one answer to an internet increasingly defined by visuals, memes, aesthetics, mood boards, and "vibes."
Today’s issue of PHONE TIME includes: Soot lets you view and organize images without the constraints of a traditional grid.
Elsewhere online: platform-forward journalism, an internet-famous dog’s birthday, and the rise of multi-sensory marketing.
I first came across Soot through an article by Fast Company global design editor Mark Wilson, who introduces it as follows:
“My daughter is 7 years old, and when she wakes up, the first thing she’ll often do is position herself in the center of an unruly pile of stuff on our basement floor. Construction paper. Tape. Stuffed animals. Pipe cleaners. Markers. Bits of ribbon.
To me, it’s the definition of disarray. To her, it puts the creative process in arm’s reach. It provides exactly what she needs to, minutes later, emerge with a charming invention or piece of art.
I mention this not only as a proud father, but because it’s the best metaphor I’ve been able to find to describe Soot.”
Wilson’s metaphor for describing the visuals-driven platform, which essentially throws tons of images up on your screen at once, really stood out to me. It is both how I would summarize how I tend to use the internet—somewhat chaotically cataloging images, screenshots, bookmarks, and media across multiple platforms—but also the kind of creative messiness that most digital interfaces don’t enable.
Soot, currently in private testing and utilizing “AI-powered visual search,” consists of an interactive map of images, unrestrained by a traditional grid or linear format. Wilson compares it to a “digital painter’s palette.” There are a variety of ways to interact, including searching directly or organizing images by similarity.
Since I read Wilson’s Fast Company article and first checked the platform out, some of the language on Soot’s website has been updated to emphasize Soot’s use of AI, more than its nonlinear format. I actually think the former—“It’s time to break up with the grid”—is the more interesting sell here. Even image-based platforms like Instagram and Pinterest are limited by the number of images that can be displayed in a vertical scroll.
In addition to Soot, several other platforms have tried or are trying to create new ways to organize information, including images: Pager, Cosmos, mymind, and Silk, to name a few. I’m not sure anyone has fully figured it out yet, but I think we’re going to continue to see more innovation in the space.
Elsewhere online
In media world…
The Information launched a new video product, TITV: “first in tech news and analysis from the people that break and shape the story. The rest is just commentary.”
“Can the New York Times Turn Its Writers Into Video Stars?” — Nicolas Quah, Vulture
I wrote in March about how we’re going to see content creation and journalism continue to intertwine; it’s not as simple as one replacing the other. I think news outlets investing in new formats that meet audiences where they are is both necessary and overdue. This also requires time from reporters and writers who would otherwise spend it developing sources, filtering through leads, and going to events. In my opinion, there’s a tricky balance between devoting time and resources to reporting versus audience engagement and story promotion. This is especially true for one-person newsletter or podcast operations with limited resources; it’s probably still true to some extent for big news organizations.
On a similar note, I’ve been keeping track of a few stories about next-generation news creators and media startups. I’m generally very skeptical of anything that trots out phrases like “just the facts” or “the news without bias.” This is because bias is baked into the reporting process from the start. Sure, you can try to make a story more “balanced” by talking to people from “both sides” of whatever issue. But in choosing who to talk to, what questions to ask, the framing of the story, what quotes you’ll use, and perhaps most importantly, what you leave out—all of that introduces bias.
Moreover, a lot of social media-driven news sources are ultimately aggregating reporting that’s coming from traditional media news outlets. I think it’s difficult if not impossible to magically excise the bias that’s already embedded into those stories. [See also: “Is Objectivity Still Worth Pursuing?” — Julie Gerstein and Margaret Sullivan, Columbia Journalism Review]
RocaNews, for example, claims to be “building the go-to news community around nothing but the facts.” To be clear, I think the company—which delivers content through an Instagram page with more than 1.7 million followers, newsletters, a YouTube channel, and an app—has succeeded in engaging audiences where much of traditional media has failed. The two daily newsletters have over 200,000 subscribers, co-founder Billy Carney told Gretel Kahn for a May report on platform-driven outlets, published by the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism. But its claim of offering “news without fear or partisanship” falls apart pretty quickly with just a quick scroll through the RocaNews Instagram, which delivers quick hits through memes, videos, and short, attention-grabbing headlines.
Ephemera everywhere…
The restaurant postcard lives! — Jasmine Ting, Taste
The Scratch ‘n Sniff sticker may not live. TREND Enterprises, the creator of the original Scratch ‘n Sniff sticker, announced it will be closing by the end of 2025. The company cited changing consumer habits, shifting economic conditions, and a decline in interest for traditional classroom decor.
For NPR’s State of the World, reporter Willem Marx looked back at his childhood stamp collection.
I’m tracking the appearance of “retro”-ish tech on brands’ Instagram pages. Rhode posted a camera in its yellow “Lemontini” shade as part of its summer collection announcement. The camera itself isn’t sold online and I didn’t see it in any of the PR unboxing videos I watched.
It isn’t just film cameras and flip phones that brands have been incorporating into campaigns and imagery—there is a lot of content that uses the iPhone or iPhone camera.
Amy Francombe wrote for i-D in 2021 about the “meta-selfie,” which incorporates the iPhone screen itself in some way. / Via @belovedbathandbody, @kosas, @rarebeauty, @trufru, @bubble
B.O.B. the blob has become a reaction meme. The blue blob character is from “Monsters vs. Aliens,” a movie I distinctly remember watching multiple times as a child. Quoting from the movie’s Fandom wiki page, “B.O.B. (short for Bicarbonate Ostylezene Benzoate) is a blue one-eyed indestructible gelatinous mass that was spontaneously created in a laboratory when scientists injected a chemically-altered ranch dressing into a genetically-altered tomato.”
It’s Nelson the bull terrier’s eighth birthday. A picture of Nelson facing the camera went viral in 2018 and took on a life of its own, with the dog being nicknamed “Walter.”
According to his FAQ page, Nelson doesn’t mind which name you use for him. / Via @PupperNelson on X Dreamworldgirl Zine is putting on a dating show called “Date or Dash,” sponsored by We’re Not Really Strangers. I’m really interested to see how independent media projects and zines choose who to partner with as they grow.
From WGSN’s blog post on the rise of “multi-sensory marketing”:
“In-person activations that deliver Glimmers - small, unexpected moments of happiness, like tactile packaging, interactive installations, or surprise-and-delight elements, will help consumers cope with stress and burnout.”
