more on the shoebox

I must say that there is a degree of entertainment value as you watch news make its way around the Web! Steve Rubel’s post has triggered a flurry of activity including a post on Scoble’s blog which is sure to generate more.

One of the earliest posts was done by Myron Kassaraba and I think he does an excellent job at communicating the product in its current form. Barb Dybwad has some insights and Jeff Clavier has also offered his own take with an emphasis on the industry.

I would like to add some definitive clarifications:

The shoebox is NOT a “photo tagging site to compete with Flickr” rather a fresh take on lots of recent innovations. As a photo bookmarking site it will depend on the great content and community furnished by Flickr!

This is an early beta, too soon to tell how, when, where or if it can become mainstream.

Thomas Edison had a lengthy list of potential uses for his phonograph invention that included:

a dictating machine for letter writing, spoken books, teaching of speech, reproduction of music, archiving of voices of famous people, music boxes and toys, speaking clocks, study of language, educational recordings, and transmission of recorded messages over the telephone.

The point being that consumers will have their say!

In my opinion, I see three ways that the shoebox could have a lasting long-term impact on photo-sharing:

• First, it is a step toward creating a class of image content aggregators (which may overlap with but is much broader than those who publish photos).
• Second, it could serve as a foundation to bridge the walled gardens of different photo sharing applications/services and ultimately drive a better consumer experience.
• Finally, (and allow me to dream just a bit!) this form of open web system with an emphasis on metadata has the potential to allow image search to built from the ground up.

Right now, it’s just a beta 🙂