Founded on the premise that a group can relate the story of a shared experience better than a single person can, Group Story is a new photo book service that allows groups of consumers who attended the same event to pool their photographs and collaborate online to merge their memories and create multi-faceted, story-telling photo books.

Group Story co-founder George Junginger explains: “Current photo books are focused on photos, not the story, and they only have one editor. Group Story lets you pick and choose those pages from other people that are meaningful to you and that experience. Whether kids on a sports team, family reunions, group travel—anytime you have a group, you have a Group Story.”

Here’s how it works: group members upload and tag photos to a shared workspace. Each member then uses these pooled images to create pages of photos. Users can select single or multi-photo layouts, change the background colour and add text to their pages. Group members then pick and choose from other members' pages to assemble their own unique photo book. Online photo books can be created free of charge, and sharing will be available soon with Facebook integration for inviting group members. Printed photo books can be ordered for USD 12.99 for 20 pages in softcover format, and USD 24.99 for hardcover. Additional pages are 50 cents each.

Launched into public beta in March, Group Story currently only prints and ships within the US but is in the process of developing partnerships with printers in other countries to expand the service, and is open to partnership inquiries. (Related: Personal photo magazine made easy through boxed kit — Mini web-to-print photo albums — Free photo books for Facebook and Bebo users.)

Website: www.groupstory.com
Contact: george@groupstory.com

Spotted by: Cecilia Biemann

We love our pets. US consumers spent USD 45.5 billion on them in 2009, according to the American Pet Products Association. Increasingly, a good chunk of this money goes toward treating domestic animals in ways that reflect their owners' own lifestyle choices. Here are five products and services that reflect this anthropomorphic trend:

1. FIDO FACTOR — Fido Factor is a US directory of dog-friendly restaurants, venues, bookstores and other establishments. The site encourages user-generated content through its iPhone app, Facebook integration, and with the promise of a donation to San Francisco SPCA when new content gets added for that city.

2. COUNTRY DOGS — Country Dogs forms partnerships with farm owners near US cities to create boarding facilities for dogs in disused barns, stables or other outbuildings. Touting itself as a more stress-free alternative to urban kennels, the service emphasizes fresh air and exercise for customers' pets in a spacious, rural environment.

3. VET CARE EXPRESS — Vet Care Express provides emergency and non-emergency transport for sick and injured pets in the Florida area. They also provide a taxi service when pets need to be moved from A to B without their owners. Their 'animal ambulances' are fully equipped with appropriate cages, gurneys and first aid facilities.

4. VIYO — Prebiotic drinks such as Yakult and Actimel have become highly successful in recent years by combining some fairly sober medical rationale about immune systems with upbeat and positive lifestyle marketing. Inevitably, there's now a Belgian prebotic for pets. Viyo comes in a cat formula and a dog formula, with varieties for different ages. Like its equivalents for humans, the drink contains friendly bacteria plus nutrients, vitamins and other supplements.

5. PET SPEAKERS — Cats and dogs are sensitive to a much wider sound frequency range than their owners. Pet hearing specialists Pet Acoustics have created a music system designed to please man and beast alike: My Pet Speaker eliminates frequencies that go unnoticed by human listeners but could unsettle cats, dogs, and horses too. Plus the controls are all positioned so they can't be flicked by passing tails.

Spotted by: Cecilia Biemann, Tom van Daele and Bill McMahon

Starting a family is such a fundamental part of human life that it's no surprise that babies are an inspiring subject for enterprise and innovation. There's a new idea born every minute ;-) Here are five we spotted recently:

1. EMBRACE — Premature or underweight newborns can have problems maintaining body temperature. Unfortunately, proper incubators aren't available or affordable everywhere. The Embrace is an infant warmer that costs less than 1 per cent of the price of a traditional incubator, according to the eponymous non-profit currently trialling it in India. It looks like a tiny sleeping bag, and is powered by a small electrical element or hot water.

2. TEXT4BABY — The result of a partnership between government agencies, corporations, academic bodies and non-profits, text4baby is a free SMS information service for expectant mothers in the United States. Messages cover health, childbirth and post-natal childcare, and are scheduled to accord with the mother-to-be's term.

3. BABYBLOOMS — Once birth has been given, friends and family will often send flowers to congratulate the new family. BabyBlooms offers a gift that looks similar, but turns out to be rather more practical: their 'bouquets' are assembled from baby clothes. There's a choice of pink, blue, natural and twin bouquets.

4. CITYSHADE — The hoods provided on strollers are sometimes too small to keep babies fully protected from the sun, and parents often find themselves augmenting the canopy with a blanket or some other improvised item. The CityShade is a purpose-built alternative. It comes in a choice of colours and styles, and can be attached neatly to many popular stroller models.

5. LE KNOCKOUT — With a medley of attendant legends, the shedding of a baby tooth is a rite of passage celebrated worldwide. Now parents can have their own memento of the occasion by getting their child's tooth cast in gold and fashioned into a piece of jewelery or a keepsake. Mawkish or charming? The sentimental imperative should not be underestimated!

Spotters: Judy McRae, Marie Sedefian, Julie Mancuso

Long gone are the days when "online" was synonymous with social isolation. In fact, we're now witnessing the opposite: technology is driving people to connect and meet up with others in the "real world". This mass mingling makes for an interesting trend, begging to be turned into new services for consumers. Here are five such services:

1. MEETUP EVERYWHERE — Meetup's new service, Meetup Everywhere, is an open and free platform that helps people build communities based on a common interest. Organisers can map offline gatherings and share announcements and updates through Facebook and Twitter accounts. One recent initiative: ReadyMade magazine partnering with Etsy.com to encourage DIY crafters to host local "craft-ups".

2. GATSBY — Gatsby is a mobile app that introduces people according to shared interests and locations, using Foursquare. Users tell Gatsby their Foursquare account details and describe their interests. Gatsby then searches for like-minded people locally and texts them with first names and what they have in common.

3. LOOPT MIX — Loopt Mix is a free iPhone app for finding and chatting to other users nearby. Users identify shared interests by means of tags and preferences on their personal profiles. There's also a set of search filters for ad hoc link-ups. Favoured contacts can be flagged to provide users with quick access to their core social circle.

4. STREETSPARK — Another iPhone app using location to get people in touch, StreetSpark has a specifically romantic intent. Users describe themselves and the kind of person they hope to meet. The app then informs them when a possible match is nearby. No contact information is divulged automatically; people can chat and choose whether or not to identify themselves.

5. LOVESTRUCK — Also in the match-making business, UK-based Lovestruck is aimed at single professionals. The website and mobile apps use work locations as a base to link potential lovers. Customers can display their availability through status updates, and iPhone owners can also see if other users are in their current vicinity when they're on the move.

For more examples of MASS MINGLING, read this month's trend briefing by trendwatching.com >>

By turning down the thermostat by 10 to 15 degrees Fahrenheit during the nighttime hours, consumers can save between 5 and 15 percent on their heating bills each year. With an eye toward helping to make that happen, Australian Lazypatch has created the Duvet Suit and other lounging gear aimed at keeping consumers warm while they reduce their energy usage at night.

With a drawstring waistband, large pockets for TV remotes and other essentials, a removable hood and a carrying bag that doubles as a pillowcase, the Duvet Suit is designed to keep wearers warm while they watch TV, take the dog for a bedtime walk, attend a sporting event or participate in any other occasion where cold can be a problem. Available in 12 different colours and patterns, the polyester-filled Duvet Suit is priced at AUD 130 for a full suit or AUD 65 for the pants or jacket alone. The AUD 170 Deluxe Down Suit, by contrast, features duck down and duck feather fill, also with a 100% cotton outer layer. Then there are Lazypatch's AUD 40.70 thermal boots with duck down filling and ultra soft leather/suede soles. Lazypatch is currently in discussions with a dyeing and printing company, meanwhile, to enable customized colours and patterns.

It may already be winter in Australia, but in the Northern Hemisphere there's still plenty of time before the cold weather sets in. Stockists in northerly climes: the timing could be just right for you!

Website: www.lazypatch.com
Contact: info@lazypatch.com