Google Cultural Institute

It was happenstance today that led me to the Google Cultural Institute, an online place to “Discover exhibits and collections from museums and archives all around the world. Explore cultural treasures in extraordinary detail, from hidden gems to masterpieces. Create your own galleries and share favorite finds with friends.”

While I ate lunch I viewed ‘exhibits’ and took virtual tours of:

• Anne Frank: Her Life, Her Diary & Her Legacy
• History of Ford’s Theatre (site of Abraham Lincoln’s assassination)
• The Fall of the (Berlin) Wall
• Computer History Museum
• Life Magazine Photo Collection
• and many more.

Though I’m quite astute with the web and user interface design, I struggled a bit with how the site’s collections were displayed. Most troubling was my inability to find that opening page again for the Anne Frank exhibit. I had to go back to my browser’s history to find the first page! It’s not as intuitive as it should be.

But that lacking ease-of-use is outweighed by the value inherent in these collections. All I could think of as I went through many of them was “Wow!”. Give it a try yourself.