Omar Kattan - search in a nutshell

Have you created an avatar of yourself at Gizmoz yet?  No? what are you waiting for!!

I’ve created the picture in this post using Gizmoz and I must say… its fantastic! (BTW, I’m not talking about the picture here) . 

Gizmoz was founded in 2003, and “offers consumers a new generation of  character-based visual expression for use across their digital lives” such as SecondLife.com.

Gizmoz also allows you to create 3D talking characters to use as talking avatars on Skype.

The process is as easy as uploading a single pic of yourself, and off you go… 

Gizmoz characters can be used on social networking sites such as My Space and Facebook as well as video sharing sites like YouTube, blogs and even in emails.

What are you still doing here?  give it a go now!

Google has bought Panoramio Photo Sharing for an undiscosed sum (but probably for a few billion $$$)

Panoramio lets users publish and locate photos via Google Maps and Google Earth and allows other users to view them based on location.  Panoramio’s database already contains over one million photos.

Here is the statement on Panoramio’s homepage:

“Today, we are pleased to announce the planned acquisition of Panoramio by Google. This acquisition is a great opportunity for Panoramio uploaders to leverage Google’s reach, increasing the exposure of their photographs to photophiles around the world and for viewers to choose from a larger universe of photographs as Panoramio becomes more widely known. We hope to close the acquisition in mid to late June of 2007. Got questions? Go to Q&A to learn more.”

The purchase of Panaromio allows the Google to ramp up its’s photo sharing technology and strategically repositions the search giant to regain some battle ground lost to Yahoo  as a resut of it’s purchase of the popular photosharing site flickr.

I’ve given Panoramio a try and its actually a very cool tool.  Its very easy to register an account, with no email verification required (although the big G will soon change that).  The interface is also very user friendly, allowing you to  upload, tag and map images in seconds.

Try it out if you haven’t already.