SAN FRANCISCO — FilmLoop Inc. introduced FilmLoop, a cross-platform photo broadcasting system currently in development for the Mac OS X and already available for the Windows operating systems, at the Macworld Expo Monday.
FilmLoop functions as a publishing system in which users can drag and drop digital photos from their collections, which are then sent across the Internet and presented to the viewer as a continuous dynamic scrolling marquee of images.
Once the stream, or "loop," of up to 200 images has been sent, users can drag specific images to their hard drives to save them, click on specific images to pull up enlarged versions of the image or access online content such as websites, blogs, movies, podcasts, file downloads, PDFs or email links.
Additionally, FilmLoop functions as a social network via its images, allowing a user to make the collection available to the public and broadcast the images. Loops can also be encoded with keywords or hypertext markup language to make them searchable and can be categorized in areas such as art, entertainment, humor, interests, news, places and sports.
"After many years of reaching the mainstream audience through popular consumer magazines, it's now clear that digital photography and the Internet have revolutionized photography," Doug Menuez, a veteran photographer who attended the MacWorld Expo said. "FilmLoop has the potential to be what Life Magazine used to be for our culture."
FilmLoop has garnered support from several major partners looking to push digital image streams of their products and services, including AutoSpies.com, Hewlett-Packard, iStockphoto, Turner Broadcasting System, PhotoBucket.com and Photo Marketing Association International.
FilmLoop is free to download and use with a fully functional Windows client available. A Mac OS X client currently is in development. The FilmLoop network, which is supported by advertising dollars, sprinkles in a moderate share of ads through each photo loop. The loop then becomes part of the FilmLoop Network, which allows other users to search for it and view it as they wish.