ScrnShots Gone Social Or A SnagIt Alternative

Overview:

ScrnShots.com is a brand new service that is centered around uploading, tagging and then sharing screenshots. It’s also a clear indication that domains are getting harder to come by.

The Sign Up Process:

The sign up process for new members consist of your typical desired username, email address, password with the obligatory checkbox which gurantees ScrnShots that you have read their TOS as well as their Community Guidelines. No support for Open ID that I could fine.

After The Sign Up Process:

Finally, a service that doesn’t force me to confirm my email address to make sure I am who I say I am. Once logged in, you’ll see what looks like a user control panel. This control panel highlights your recent activity, popular tags, recent screenshots and stats along with RSS feeds to which you can subscribe to or share with others. These RSS feeds are for your Screenshots, Favorites and Contacts. Check it out.

Time To Take ScrnShots:

There two ways in which you can add scrnshots. The first is by uploading your image from your hard drive. The uploader supports the JPG, GIF and PNG file formats with a maximum file size of 5mb allowed. The second way is to use the ScrnShots Desktop tools which is in Beta for both Mac OSX 10.5 and Windows XP. For the purpose of this review, I’ll be using the Windows Edition of the ScrnShot Tool. The Windows version contains the following feature set:

Program lives in the taskbar which means its out of the way, but always there when you need to snap a quick screeenshot.
Select the area of the screen that you want to take a screenshot of.
Upload screenshots from existing files on your computer.
Describe, tag and add a url to images before uploading them.

The installation process was a breeze while the file size of the application was minimal. Great news for those of you who are already capped by your ISP. Upon starting the ScrnShots application for the first time, you are prompted to provide it with your username and password which is the same credentials you would use for the ScrnShots website.

Once installed, there will be an icon that will sit in your taskbar with the letters SS on it. Upon right clicking this icon, you’ll be greeted with a context menu which contains a number of options.

One thing I noticed right off the bat is that you can’t configure a hot key for this application. Instead, you have to right click on the icon in the task bar and select Take A Screenshot. However, after clicking on Take A Screenshot, the entire viewing area on your monitor (with the exception of your task bar) turns an opaque grey letting you know that the tool is active. Using your mouse, you can select any area on your screen in which to capture. Upon doing so, a dialog box will popup giving you the chance to configure a description, tag the image and then give attribution if necessary.

After The Upload:

After clicking the UPLOAD SCREENSHOT button, (notice how they used the correct word) the image is uploaded to your account on ScrnShots. From here, users can comment on your screenshot, embed your screesnhot or link to your screenshot. They can even add the screenshot to their favorites if they like it that much.

Here is what the screenshot looks like on the ScrnShot website.

Here is an example of an Embedded ScrnShot:

Overall, this seems like a novice approach towards creating a social network through screenshots. Although I doubt this will put a dent in the userbase Skitch has, perhaps ScrnShots will tickle the fancy of someone looking for a different experience.

As for me? I’ll stick with my tried and true method of the SnagIt FireFox Extension.

DIGG THIS PLEASE I’m Begging You

Over the last month or so, I have noticed a sharp increase in what has become known as DIGG BEGGING. These are people who post their links on Twitter, forums and wherever else asking sometimes begging people to Digg their article. The question I ask is, WHY? I understand the importance of the Digg front page which sends a torrent of traffic your way if your lucky but why resort to begging or using Digg exchanges? For us common users, Digg used to be a place which was ruled my the majority, also known as the wisdom of crowds. It seems as if the Digg system has finally broke down to the point where there is more trash within the Digg system than there are nuggets of gold.

If your page or content is front page worthiness, I’m sure it would reach the front page without the need of begging or purchasing Diggs. As DigitalSpammer suggests, please make this stop.

DIGG THIS PLEASE I’m Begging You

If your page or content is front page worthiness, I’m sure it would reach the front page without the need of begging or purchasing Diggs. As DigitalSpammer suggests, please make this stop.

WikiPedia Hits 2 Million Pages

The most popular, sometimes controversial online encyclopedia, Wikipedia has achieved another milestone today with 2 million user generated pages. The article which lays claim to the title had something to do with El Hormiguero, which detailed a Spanish Television show which went by the same name.

To lay credence to the information in Wikipedia, most of the searches I perform in Google contain at least one or two results from Wikipedia on the front page of search results. That has to stand for something. Congratulations to WikiPedia for the milestone, here’s to 2 million more pages!

Let Your Greenvoice Be Heard

As reported by Mashable Greenvoice has launched a new activism community for those who love to live green. The first thing you’ll notice is the page layout and design, which I personally feel is excellent. Greenvoice is yet another platform for people to share, collaborate, communicate and voice opinions on issues related to living green.

Those who participate in the community are known as Greenvoicers, who can take as active or inactive role in the site as they wish.

Greenvoice allows users to create Campaigns. Users of Greenvoice are able to donate towards these campaigns as they wish. One thing worth noting is that the campaigns are in POUNDS and not dollars. Some of the campaigns that have already started include, Excess Packaging For Software, Free Papers, Bottled Water, Intensive Pig Farming and more.

There are also sections to write appeals or actions to oppose or support a particular campaign, a section to display videos, and each campaign has a slew of bookmarking options. These act as wikis of sorts, and Greenvoice users can contribute some information to a certain degree, whether you’re a member of the campaign or not.

Check out Greenvoice if you feel your up to the challenge of making a positive impact on the world.