Flickr mashups: #5

I had heard of mashups before signing up for the 23 Things Challenge, but wasn't sure what they did or why anyone would want to use them. I was interested to learn how commercial websites are using them, as well as how they can exist purely for fun-- and also to learn I've already encountered mashups without realizing it! I've spent time on Colr Pickr before; I remember being mesmerized by all the pretty colors and their associated images.

In exploring more flickr mashups, I spelled my name using Spell with Flickr and had fun clicking through the various options for each letter until I was pleased with the results!

Then I searched Tagnautica. It's more time-consuming than simply inputting keywords directly into flickr's search box, but is undeniably more visually pleasing-- I was hypnotized by the interface's liquid aesthetic. While I don't think Tagnautica is the most practical or efficient way to search, it's definitely an enjoyable and appealing way to browse through different concepts and see how people are bringing these concepts together by tagging images.

I also played with retrievr. It was sort of Zen to scribble some abstract shape and see the images retrieved... and to find that this application does actually find pictures that resemble the scribble! When I drew a red heart on a white field, for example, retrievr brought up images of vibrant strawberries.

And believe it or not, flickr Sudoku was actually my first introduction to sudoku. It's addictive!

Most of these mashups seem to be for amusement and diversion rather than for any particular practical purpose, and it's nice to see people developing applications for fun. I think these mashups represent another layer of Web 2.0. People created and shared content by uploading and tagging their pictures on flickr, and then other people came along and created mashups using that content. Fascinating and fun!