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Posts Tagged ‘fotonauts’

We are big fans of Fotopedia (which is also known as Fotonauts), TechCrunch50 startup that turns your photo albums into collaborative Web pages about different topics and subjects. According to an SEC filing, Fotonauts raised $1.1 million in funding from Ignition Partners, Banexi Ventures and Jean-Marie Hullot, the founder of Fotonauts. Hullot confirmed the funding with TechCrunch. Previously, Fotonauts had raised $2.3 million in seed funding.

Recently launched Fotopedia is supposed to be a cross between Flickr and Wikipedia, serving as an archive of “images for humanity.” Fotopedia’s newest platform lets you turn any photo album from your photos into a Web page entry on Fotopedia, complete with tags, associated Wikipedia entry, and Google Map information where available. Hullot told us that Fotopedia is now completely web-based, (the startup previously debuted with a desktop client) and that users will no longer need the desktop client to create and publish slideshows on Fotopedia. The platform is not dropping the client all together, so users can still continue to interact with the desktop app.

On the Fotopedia web site, anyone can access albums for a variety of topics, places, people and more. There are over 300,000 high quality pictures organized into 18,000 “articles.” Each article is a Web slide show, along with the associated Wikipedia entry and Google Map. Each photo contains a good amount of metadata making it search-engine friendly. The encyclopedia tab on the site lets you access a indexed archive of photo albums on topics like geography, history, art and more.

Hullot told us that a significant amount of growth since its launch earlier this year, adding Facebook Connect and even venturing into marketing partnerships. The startup is set to announce a a joint partnership centered around the UN Climate Change conference next week.

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When Fotonauts debuted at last year’s TechCrunch50, I called it a “gorgeous photopedia” because it promised to turn your photo albums into collaborative Web pages about different topics and subjects. Fotonauts is a desktop photo client which helps you tag, organize, and share your photos in a live feed, and is still in private beta. But you can see a glimpse of what the Web-facing version will look like at Fotopedia, which just soft-launched. A message at the top of the page states: “Fotopedia, a sneak peek. This site is an in-progress read-only preview of what we are going to launch in a few days.”

One of the features of Fotonauts which has yet to be turned on is the ability to turn any photo album into a Web page, complete with tags, associated Wikipedia entry, and Google map information where available. Fotopedia showcases some of the same public albums you can see in the Fotonauts client, plus it adds a few twists. Each photo can be voted up or down or flagged as inappropriate. There is an Encyclopedia tab, which shows albums by topic/tag. For instance, you can see albums about Volcanos, butterflies, or Venice.

There are nearly 150,000 high-quality photos already, organized into 4,289 “articles.” Each article is a Web slide show, along with the associated Wikipedia entry and Google Map. Each photo contains a lot of metadata making it search-engine friendly. Fotopedia is supposed to be a cross between Flickr and Wikipedia, an= long-lasting archive of “images for humanity.” Fotonauts founder Jean-Marie Hullot explains in a note: “Flickr and other photo sites give you exposure for only a brief window in time, and adding photos to Wikipedia proved too complicated for the average user.”

In addition to the photos, there is also an active community. You can follow other people or follow specific albums. You can also see individual profiles when you are logged in. You can also share albums as widgets. (I’ve included ones for Volcano and butterfly albums below).

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