Lifeblob's World

Earlier this week, google announced image swirl with much fanfare. At this point, it is just a preview of what it can be but certainly good enough to show the potential of this technology.

Since lifeblob is also about connecting people and their memories through photos, it makes an interesting comparison with google swirl. Infact, a lot of people have already asked me how lifeblob is differentiated from google swirl – here are my thoughts:

1) Swirl is about similar photos, Lifeblob is about related photos

With google swirl, you are essentially exploring through similar photos with a specific intent in mind. If I search in swirl for “Washington Monument“, I will essentially see lots of photos of “Washington Monument” neatly grouped up.  You want it, you get it – nothing more, nothing less.

With lifeblob, when you are viewing a “Washington Monument” photo, you see other photos around it that are related to it in some manner. That means, you could see other photos from washington, other monuments of the world, or even photos that are related to the person who took this particular shot.

You don’t get 100 photos of “Washington Monuments” here, but what you do get is the opportunity to meet other people who have similar interests ( perhaps cyclists or photographers or travelers in this case ) and you get a chance to discover other things that are related to this monument.

2) Swirl is about navigation, Lifeblob is about discovery

Swirl gives you a cool way to navigate through photos, but they are all essentially variants of the same photo. You don’t get anything more than what you ask for.

With lifeblob, every photo you view is a door opening into 20 other photos. And any of these photos you choose opens up into 20 more. With every step, you are discovering, seeing the world from the eyes of others and meeting new people.

3) Swirl is about intent, Lifeblob is about serendipity

There are times when you really want to find a specific photo – that is when you go to swirl. And once you are done, you get out of there.

With lifeblob its a longer term relation. We host all your photos for you and discover interesting photos for you – there is an element of serendipity and surprise in there. You may post a photo of your college days and be surprised with photos of 5 of your classmates popping up next to it – try it out, its very likely.

4) Swirl does not connect people, Lifeblob creates ad-hoc interest based groups

Behind the funky visualization, swirl is a search engine and its job is to find photos that match your query.

Lifeblob, on the other hand is a social networking utility and its job is to connect people together. In addition to friends that you already have, lifeblob helps you discover people who have common interests. So if you are a cycling enthusiast, upload your cycling photo and see lifeblob find photos from other cyclists show up next to your photo. Its a great way to meet new people, especially since their photos tell you a lot about them before you initiate a conversation.

5) Swirl gets boring quickly, Lifeblob remains enjoyable for a long time

A part of the motivation for this statement is that we run Lifeblob . But really, to use swirl, you need to think about some keywords first. After a search or two, the initial euphoria dies down very quickly and you log off.

With lifeblob, with every photo, you see 20 connected photos. With each of these 20 photos, there are 20 more. Do the math yourself – its a huge mesh of photos connected together and there are infinite possibilities for moving around and discovering new stuff. Once you get started, it can be very addictive ( don’t say we didn’t warn you ).

I have left a couple of links around in this post so that you can experience lifeblob first hand. And if you have used both these services, do let us know what you think!