Tokyo-based Cinemacraft has already taken on the video embed with Videogram, which uses thumbnails to displays content scene-by-scene, and now the 500 Startups-backed firm is taking on the slideshow with new service Qixshr — pronounced ‘quick share’.
The service, launched in full today, groups photos into a clickable collage that gives more depth than a slideshow and is more consolidated than an album.
“While Videogram is about video discovery and social engagement, Qixshr is about photo album discovery and social engagement,” CEO and founder Sandeep Casi tells TNW. “In a nutshell, we want to replace slideshows on publishers websites.”
Sounds good to us.
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The services takes (up to 40) photos from a user’s computer and/or Flickr stream and automatically arranges them into an attractive collage of thumbnails. Each thumbnail brings up a full image when clicked. Future support for photo services such as Instagram and Facebook is planned to bring more steel to Qixshr.
The collages can be embedded on blogs and Tumblr, and shared to the usual array of social networks, including Pinterest, Facebook, Twitter and Flipboard.
As is the case with Videogram, Cinemacraft uses its own engine and technology to create the collages automatically, as Casi explains.
“The algorithm that we are using for Qixshr has the same core as Videogram. The system takes a first pass at making a photo collage automatically, based on lens focus, color, face detection.”
There is also an option to drag, scale, drop and edit a collage if a user wishes to.
Casi explains that, for now, Qixshr uses java but the company plans to replace that with HTML5 once the elements that the service requires are standard on all browsers. With Videogram available for iOS and Android, we can likely expect mobile apps to come for Qixshr too.
As is the case with Videogram, Cinemacraft is aiming to make Qixshr attractive to media companies. Each panel in the collage is a clickable unit and has it’s own call to action element, which could make for an interesting way to serve content to audiences while also remaining of interest and contextual.
So, if you’re bored of slideshows, find collages painful to create or just want to try something new, give Qixshr a spin at the link below.
➤ Qixshr
Headline image via Thinkstock
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