"If it felt that good to get a hug from a stranger, we imagined how much more of an impact it would have if all the hugs were personal, someone you know, someone you love," explained co-creators Lauren Perlow and Jeff Lam in an email to Mashable. "Parents with kids off at school, military families, grandparents and grandkids, any sort of long-distance relationship."
Perlow and Lam had the idea to create the original Nicest Place on the Internet for fun after a rough day at their ad agency jobs, and it took off organically shortly after. About 200,000 people visited the site last month.
To create a personalized version, anyone can simply enter YouTube IDs for the videos they'd like to include. The website automatically formats those videos and sets them to music at a unique URL.
I made this hug hub, which exclusively features cats, in about five minutes. But it's easy to imagine how putting a little more thought into the project could result in a touching Valentine's Day gesture for someone special or, at the least, an increase in overall Internet niceness.
Will you be creating your own Nicest Place on the Internet? What will it include? Tell us in the comments.
