Thing 6: Fun With Flickr -- Picture Association

My favorite Flickr mashup so far has been Retrievr. It's basically an application that searches Flickr for images that meet certain criteria. Doesn't sound like anything fancy, right

The catch is that Retrievr searches from image rather than text. It finds similarities between a picture that you either draw on a little pallet or upload from your computer or website. The search engine recognizes the shading and basic structure of the picture you give it, then gives you back a cornucopia of similar images on Flickr.

What you get back may not be what you're looking for. But that isn't really the point. The fun of Retrievr is exploring Flickr and finding images that you never would have seen before.

You can turn it into a game of association. I started by sketching a picture of a red book.

I didn't get any red books back, but the shapes and colors are similar. Clicking on an image takes you directly to the Flickr page. Mousing over an image pops up a magnifying glass which you can select to generate a new search starting with that image.

Now you're exploring (and having fun with Flickr).