Web search with My Location (Google)
As a long-time user of Windows mobile devices, I was interested in the news about Google’s use of the Gears Geolocation API to get an approximate ID on where you’re located when you search.  The API uses the same Cell ID technology Google uses for Google Maps on mobile devices.

So if you are out of your home territory and searching for a local place, Google will find both your results and your location.  You don’t have to type in your location as you travel around.

At this time only a handful of devices are supported.  “To check and see if your device is supported, head to ‘www.google.com’ on your mobile web browser.  A ‘My Location’ link should be available right under the search box.  You may have to refresh the page to see the link.  If refreshing doesn’t help then your device probably isn’t supported at the moment.  My Location is a small, but more than welcomed feature for Google Local search,” says Read/WriteWeb.

Artweaver free Windows download alternative to Photoshop
Artweaver may lack the polish and advanced features sets of Photoshop, says Lifehacker, but it is so much like Photoshop that folks familiar with that software will find Artweaver easy and intuitive.

Artweaver is a robust photo editing software package that includes layer management, image cloning, and many common filters available in Photoshop.  Best of all, it’s a free download (Windows only) and is available as a full install or in a portable version.

If you use Windows XP or Vista and are willing to download and run an installation package, you will now be able to use Microsoft’s new Photosynth service that creates “synths” — scenes that automatically position groups of images as they would appear in real life, letting users zoom around and explore environments from many perspectives.  You’ll need a Windows Live ID, as well.  The Seattle P-I has a detailed story.

The program runs inside Internet Explorer 7 and Firefox 2 and 3 only, and your photos will be available for the public to view, findable through the Photosynth search tool.  The program is a combination of technologies from Microsoft Research, the University of Washington and Seadragon Software, a Seattle-based startup that Microsoft acquired in 2006.  Up until now, it has only been a technology preview.

“It’s a cool product — if it works” as demonstrated, said Matt Rosoff, analyst at the independent research firm Directions on Microsoft. “I think once people see how it works, it’s interesting enough and cool enough that a lot of people will be attracted.”

The new version of Photosynth comes with the ability to rotate a scene on a circular axis to see an object from all the angles at which it was photographed.  The underlying technology matches up the commonalities in photos to figure out the “right way” to present them together on the screen.

“The idea behind Photosynth isn’t to stitch together a perfect 3D model of a particular scene.  Rather, it’s to let people browse and view photos in a way that gives a sense for the broader surroundings.  When one photo is selected, others are shown around it, but slightly blurred.  The individual photos aren’t altered.”

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.

A huge collection of historic photographs, film and video is available to the public for the first time as NASA partners with the non-profit Internet Archive (press release), according to an article in PC Authority.

Twenty-one major Nasa imagery collections are merged into a single searchable online resource.   The content of the site covers all the diverse activities of America’s space program, including imagery from the Apollo missions, Hubble Space Telescope views of the universe and experimental aircraft past and present.  Mouse over the timeline and its clickable images to get a quick historic overview.

For those interested in using some of the images, especially for educational purposes, check out the Terms of use:  “The NASA imagery offered on NASAIMAGES.ORG is generally not copyrighted.  You may use this NASA imagery for educational or informational purposes, including photo collections, textbooks, public exhibits and Internet Web pages (personal or otherwise).”  Read about use for commercial purposes or use of images containing identifiable people, if applicable.  [via Slashdot]

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]

If you are in the market for some personal technology but are feeling the current pinch during this economic downturn, you’ll be interested in PC Magazine’s picks for the 20 best products (rating 3 or better) under $100.

Categories include:

• Mobile Phones and PDAs,
• interesting computer peripherals such as mice, flash drives, and video cams,
• digital photo and video equipment
• MP3 players and headphones,
• and printers.
  

Picnik Firefox extension
 Picnik is a free image editing tool that has a Firefox exension allowing you to grab screenshots, and process and edit images, entirely within your browser, notes Lifehacker. 

This capability makes it possible for you to eliminate the need to download and upload when doing online image editing.  Take a look at the video to see how it works. 

Zoho Notebook use
Instead of emailing someone a bunch of links to interesting Websites, Digital Inspiration suggests you create a Zoho Notebook for them.  If you have an existing Google or Yahoo account, you can sign into Zoho without creating another one.

To get an idea of how this might appear in the end, check out Amit’s example.  Making the notebook is quick and simple.  The Web pages you add appear as vertical tabs in the right sidebar.  You can name them and drag and drop them around as you wish.  Finish by “publishing” the notebook, then copy the URL and share it with whomever you please.

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.

Trip planning tips with Google Maps
Have you checked out ways to use Google Maps to make travel planning easy and fun?  Before you head out the door for your summer vacation trip, search for hotels, restaurants, check reviews, and use street-level imagery. 

Want to know about weather, parks, gas stations?  Want to know what the area looks like?  Check out photos, videos, and turn on the Panoramio photo layer to see photos others have taken.  Later you can add your own photos and videos to “my maps” and share with friends.

The tip site includes a brief video.  

Have a “look around” with Panoramio
If you are not familiar with Panoramio, Google’s site for sharing geo-tagged photos, now is a good time to become aware of it.  Panoramio lets photographers geo-locate, store and organize their photographs and view them in their geographic context.

I’ve enjoyed viewing these photos as I explored locations on Google Earth and Google Maps, but now if you visit the Panoramio site itself, places with a lot of photos (typically the big tourist sites) can give you a “look around.” 

Select a locale and then a photo — in this example the Ponte Vecchio in beautiful Florence, Italy — look for and click on the “look around” link. 

In the image below, I have already selected an alternate view of the bridge.  You just need to mouse over a photo to see what slice of the original is represented in the displayed thumbnails which you can click on to “look around.”  You can move all around the area, left or right, closer or farther away, day or night, depending on the photos available.  Enjoy your arm-chair travel!

ACRL’s College & Research Libraries News (May,2008), has published an article about, and with links to, online digital collections at universities, libraries, the Library of Congress, the Institute of Museum and Library Services, and other organizations.

The efforts in recent years by libraries, archives, and historical societies to digitize collections have created incredible visual resources that inclue many subject areas and media formats.  Many focus on education, such as the Education by Design site in Broward County, Florida, (shown).

“Researchers now have access to millions of primary materials from any Internet-accessible computer, which would otherwise require an in-person visit to the physical collection,” states author Anne Blecksmith. 

Please note that although the collections in the article may include digital images of primary materials in the public domain, they must be properly credited when used for educational purposes, and inclusion in a publication or other media project requires permission from the copyright holder.  [via Resource Shelf]