The Four-eyed Journal

Every time I need to edit a photo for a blog post like adding speech bubbles, Photoshop needs to be fired up. This takes up considerable amount of time and system resources especially when ideas are so fragile during “eureka!” moments or when my notebook is already running 5+ windows of Firefox each having a minimum of 8 tabs open, the entire pre-editing process nearly kills the creative flow.

Sure there are other image editors out there which are far lighter and easier to use than Photoshop but wouldn’t it be nice to have one that doesn’t require any piece of software to be installed on your machine and just be used with a web browser instead?

Enter Kyolo, a web 2.0 site where anyone can freely upload the image of their choice and simply put in their speech bubbles as easy as putting on some underwear.

Speech bubbles could be re-sized, changed its style and placed anywhere in the image. The same goes the fonts you’d use in your speech bubble. Once you’re satisfied with your creation click outside the image and your photo is done! You also have the option of saving the save the image on Kyolo and you’d be offered direct ways to email it to your friends to brighten their days.

Kyolo is also a social-networking site where users can open an account and store their creations in private or public photos for the whole world to share and enjoy. We just to make sure we own or we have the rights to use and edit the images of our choosing, otherwise things wouldn’t be so rosy afterward.

Over-all, bloggers and editors who love spicing up their posts or commentaries with images of their fave or subject politician or pet would love Kyolo. Let’s start bubbling away!

ShareThis

So it’s official and working. Videos can now be uploaded to Flickr just like on PhotoBucket. But there are a lot of strings attached to this one:

• 90-second cap on video length and 150MB in size
• Only “safe” and “moderate” videos are allowed
• Original content is a must
• Only users with PRO Flickr accounts can upload videos

Of course everyone else could watch the videos. However, I see something else with this new development in Flickr. Why would a photo storage and sharing site would host videos? There are a lot of good websites that already do this and Flickr has been doing good at hosting and sharing photos. It even led to Zooomr’s migration to Japan. So why host videos all of sudden?

From my comment left on Yuga’s post about this new Flickr feature, it is perhaps an attempt to “break the ice”, so to speak, because if I’m correct no significantly new development has happened to Flickr since of late except for this one. They’ve done the photo hosting and sharing gig so well there was almost nothing new to do or to try.

And so, moving pictures was the next logical step. After all, Flickr is still a photo hosting and sharing site remember?

But why just 90 seconds of video fun? Why are there so much strings attached to new feature?

The answer is found in the Flickr FAQ:

Video on Flickr is going to be defined by our incredible, diverse, far-flung and fabulously talented members. Some answers that we’ve come up with:

1. A long photo
2. Personal
3. Simple – not overproduced or slick
4. Possibly the best answer so far: The Great Unknown

Okay. Still, somehow, and you’ve guessed it from the title of this post, I cannot help but think that Flickr Video is their take on what has made Twitter so successful.

• Just 140 characters
• Personal
• Simple - not like a full blown blog post like this one
• Just answer one question: What are you doing?

If 140 characters of personal updates from friends, colleagues, family and fellow bloggers can be so addicting, a 90-second video would be just as tasty and interesting as well. We’re not even talking about the excitement of shooting a 90-second clip. Perhaps this would be my ticket to videoblogging, eh?

So, what would your 90-second Flickr video would be like?

PS: You could follow me on Twitter or see my Flickr photos here.

ShareThis