Fotobuzz - Image... Flash Replacement?

It's always interesting how to see how one clever idea can start someone thinking along slightly different lines.

The guy's at 2Entwine have taken some of the core technique from sIFR and re-applied it images, allowing you to annotate them on-the-fly images. Once you have it set up, adding nothing more than a custom class to your image file will enable it on that image.

Although Fotobuzz seems to be initally pitched at photobloggers, I think this technique shows a lot of potential in other areas.

Certainly anyone selling products online could find this to be fast and effective way to detail the finer points of their stock in very visual way.

(no, it's not broken. it's just a screenshot)

Fotobuzz may also have a use in online tutorials and web learning, allowing, for instance, single screen-shots to demonstrate 2 or 3 separate points without becoming over-crowded. Of course, all information would need to be in the standard body content as well, to allow for users not using Flash.

Never-the-less, the ability to visually tie parts of an image to particular instructions is quite a powerful idea and certainly something we may be experimenting with in the new year.