With less than a few weeks left before we all enter the year of 2012 (as some believe, the last one in our calendar), we are looking back at what innovations captured consumers’ attention over the past 12 months. Some of the new projects and products appeared within the trends, which emerged earlier, and some of them are truly innovative and ambitions and pave the way for something completely unseen and unpredicted by average minds.

Google is getting close at Facebook Events service heels with its newly released Schemer, an activities recommendation engine with Google+ integration. Though the service is an invite-only beta so far but it already has partnered with well-known brands to organize schemes. These brands include Bravo, Entertainment Weekly, Food Network, IGN, LifeHacker, National Geographic, the US Department of the Interior and Zagat

To promote its social network Google+, the Internet giant Google is launching a new competition for up and coming photographers, inviting them to upload their visual works to the new platform. For the contest entitled Google Photography Prize the company has teamed up with Saatchi Gallery, London, which will provide the finalists and the winner with hilarious prizes, which are sure to help them boost their photography career.