It seems like there are a growing number of places you can create online presentations.  Technology Bites points to 280 Slides, an online tool for creating and sharing presentations on the web.

The good part of the tool is that it allows you to pull the data from various online services and to share it using SlideShare, they say.

Upload from Flickr, upload videos, or pull them from Youtube.  Shapes, layouts and themes for presentations are supported and the presentations can be saved to a .ppts, .ppt, .odp or pdf file.  280 Slides is useful to create and share presentations on the fly if you don’t have PowerPoint installed.

280 Slides says of itself:

• Take It With You — We store your presentations securely on our server so you can take them anywhere in the world where there’s an Internet connection.
• Download to PowerPoint — With a single click you can download a copy of your presentation in the Microsoft PowerPoint 2007 format.
• Built-In Media Search — Add photos and movies to your presentation directly from popular web services like Flickr and YouTube.
• Publish to the Web — Put your presentation on SlideShare, e-mail it to a friend, or embed it directly on your own website, all with just a few clicks.
• Stunning Themes — It’s easy to make a great looking presentation with our professional quality built-in themes.
• Run in Your Web Browser — 280 Slides runs right in the browser, with no download and no installation, and it works just like the desktop applications you’re used to.

These 25 free places to get photos, templates, and images are a great find at Librarian in Black.

I am a frequent user of a couple of these, but was happy to discover new ones.

By the way, you can search everystockphoto to also find photos on stock.xchng, morgueFile and Flickr.  You can also add everystockphoto to your search engine menu (see image on right).

You’ll need to check out the licenses, especially with Flickr, before you use them with impunity, buy many have few restrictions.

If you are looking specifically for Flickr photos to use, try a search for those with a Creative Commons license, either at Flickr (one of the advanced search options), compfight, or Flickrstorm.

Idee Multicolor Search Lab has a color matching search engine for 3 million “interesting” Flickr images, as well as a front end for Alamy Stock Photography if you are in need of royalty-free images.

Check out the FAQ for more information.  [via Lifehacker]

Do you remember when Flickr teamed with Moo to introduce mini calling cards with your selected photo on one side and  your contact info on the other?  Now Moo is getting ready to bring you regulation size business cards to relieve the boredom of the ordinary.

You can sign up for the newsletter and receive 20% off your first order when the cards are launched.  See what it is all about in the clever video “Introducing Moo Business Cards” below.  [via Web Worker Daily]

Introducing MOO Business Cards. from Moo Crew on Vimeo.

Upload Picasa photos to Flickr
A new and improved version of Picasa2Flickr has been released, according to Lifehacker. 

For those of us who use Picasa to store and make edits to photos on our hard drives, but like to share them on Flickr, this is good news.  Picasa2Flickr is a free Windows-only plug-in that sends selected photos directly to Flickr Upoadr 3.0.

YouTube Annotations
YouTube added a new feature for video creators: video annotations, reports the Google Operating System blog which shows some interesting examples.

“Video Annotations are a new way for you to add interactive commentary to your videos. Use them to add background information about the video, create stories with multiple possibilities (viewers click to choose the next scene) or link to related YouTube videos, channels, or search results from within a video.”

When you have videos uploaded to YouTube, you can add annotations by going to your list and clicking on “Edit annotations,” or by visiting one of your videos while you are logged in.  There are three types of annotations that can be added while playing the video: speech bubbles, notes and spotlights.

Talk about the world around you with GeoGraffiti
This find strikes me as a unique way to capitalize on our social networking and sharing culture, as well as on the prevalence of cell phones.

GeoGraffiti now has a public beta of a free “verbal bulletin board.”  You can create location-speciific audio notes, called “voice marks,” from any cell phone.  Share them with the world and listen to and/or respond to other people’s voice marks.

GeoGraffiti says its mission is to organize the mobile phone community’s “wisdom of crowds” intelligence, and to facilitate the exchange of that location-specific intelligence by providing a voice-driven platform that is accessible from any phone and any place.

MobileCrunch says that once you have registered, “adding a new location through the site is quick and easy, but doing so over the phone is currently a bit of a chore. If you initiate the Voice Mark over the phone, its placement is only accurate to the zip code. After you record your Voice Mark, you’ll click your way through a series of menus to properly tag your recording - it’s easy to follow, but listening through the options takes a bit too long.”

The video demo shows how you can take advantage of GeoGraffiti.  [via TechCrunch]

Photoshop Express adds Flickr support
When we first posted about the new free online image editor, Photoshop Express, we listed the supported photo sharing sites and mentioned that Flickr was expected in the future. 

Now Lifehacker reports that Flickr support has been added so you can take images from your Flickr account, edit them with PS Express, and put them back, all without downloading anything. 

“It’s not full-on Photoshop”, they say, “but still a great web-based editor for your Flickr photos.”

Shelfari’s new and upgraded features
Shelfari has a new home page and features that allow for easy exploration of what other Shelfari members are doing.  You can see which books, members and groups are active, find a new book or a friend.  Add to your friends’ network, or seach for books by category or tags.

If you are not familiar with it, Shelfari was the “first social media site focused on books, and continues to innovate as it brings together the world’s readers.”

Authors Unbound is a new Shelfari community page where you can add to and edit author information. Click on any author’s name on Shelfari to view their Unbound page and write about them. 

Search up a Storm on Flickr
I just read about Flickr Storm search engine that has some lovely features.  The “advanced” search function that allows you to choose the type of license you want your photo results to have is particularly useful.  In the example below you can see that I searched for “library” with “photos for non-commercial use” as the license. 

Notice that the large photo, which is one I clicked on from the results set, has the copyright license symbol at the bottom right.  When you mouse over the symbol, the type of license appears.

To the left of the photo results set is a “history” tray which will show you pictures you have recently clicked on, and below that is a “your photos” tray that you can add to, link to, or download from. 

And, as if that weren’t enough, scroll to the bottom of the set to find suggestions for related search terms and photos.  [via Librarian in Black] 

Keeping up with Better Gmail extension
I have found it worthwhile to use the “new” Gmail and to use the Better Gmail extension and its various refinements that have been introduced over time.  Now Gina Trapani has brought out Better GMail 2 version 0.3.5.  Better Gmail 2 is a compilation of Greasemonkey user scripts that add useful features to Gmail.  It works only with new Gmail.

We have posted before about Gmail, and its extension upgrades. 

Send Flickr photos, videos as email
Flickr has added a new “Share” function that lets you email a photograph or a video to your friends without requiring an external email program.

“When you email a photo from Flickr, it attaches a copy of the picture (medium size) in the email message itself so recipients can view images without leaving their email program,” points out Digital Inspiration.

When you send a Flickr video via email, an image of the first video frame is sent in the email message.  That is linked to the actual location of the video file on Flickr website.

You might want to go to your Flickr account page and check the settings so you can control who can email your photos directly.

Photos you can freely use
Free Use Photos is a group of Flickr photos that can be used without any copyright restrictions.  All images are free and no attribution is necessary.

The group description suggests that you can use them in your displays, presentations, publications or anywhere else.   I immediately found some I would like to use in this blog.  You are also encouraged to join the group photo pool and add your own freely shareable photos.  [via Library Crunch] 

Selected visual communication, video publishing tools
Here are some more selected tools at the Robin Good site for those wanting to edit photos or videos, or arrange them in presentations or slideshows.  There are some very interesting tools here.  Most are free or have free-trials.

•  Adobe Photoshop Express
•  Kineticast
•  FlauntR
•  Sketchcast
•  QlipBoard
•  Omnisio
•  Youconvertit
•  Oxytube  
   

Diigo — next generation social bookmarking
Diigo 3.0 promises a next generation social bookmarking and annotation service that enables users to increase research productivity, readily exchange information, and connect with others who share their interests and concerns.

Quick Online Tips says to forget mere bookmarking, instead highlight portions of web pages, add sticky notes and create your own personal digest of the web with your collection of highlights for leisure reading.

“The new Diigo combines the best of social networking, bookmarking, highlighting, and annotating to let people discover, save, and share the information that is important to them.”

Twins Visions — image management and editing tool
Twins Visions is another tool for managing your photo collection.  It comes with a 3D image viewer, photo editor and sharing tool.  It has basic image editing capabilities like resizing, cropping, red eye removal and a few effects can be added as well.
 
“The best part of this application is the ability to do all the tasks like viewing, editing and sharing using a single application. Many softwares which come with digital cameras allows you to view and edit your photos but they don’t allow you to share your pictures via Flickr.  Using Visions you can upload selected pictures to your Flickr account.”

Video on Flickr
Pro Flickr members can now share videos up to 90 seconds in their photostream.

Flickr Blog explains that the limit fits into the idea of “long photos,” of “capturing slices of life to share.”  Flickr is also doubling the size of still photos that can be uploaded — 20MB per photo for pro members and 10MB per photo for members with free accounts.