ffffound, flickr, and finding favourites

For the last week or so, I've been using a site called ffffound a great deal. In its own words,

FFFFOUND! is a web service that not only allows the users to post and share their favorite images found on the web, but also dynamically recommends each user's tastes and interests for an inspirational image-bookmarking experience!!

There's a great writeup by Michal Migurski which, if you've not seen it, you should read. He covers the bookmarklet, the lack of tags. It's interesting that its tight invite policy - although it's gone up from one to three per user - has kept the site's quality high, despite the growth of the site. (A mention from Kottke and wide linking to an animated gif of Paris Hilton don't seem to have caused problems.)

There are a couple of things mentioned in that post I'd like to reiterate. Firstly, the automatic creation of the fan/follower network (based on who posted images first, I believe) is lovely. Compared to its two obvious reference points, Flickr and del.icio.us, this really feels like magic, and it seems to largely work. (Migurski himself noted that your network is no longer invisible, but it is still autogenerated.) Secondly, the site has a really nice string of image connections; it's very easy to surf. I still run a narrow browser, so I almost missed the three thumbnails to the right of every main image; beyond that, when you click through to an image's page, there's usually a good half dozen candidates for further exploration.

A feature that wasn't mentioned (maybe it came along later?) is the use of vi keys for paging. Usually the standard paging in a browser works fine, but for a screen of images, you'll usually end up with an image stranded half in the viewport, half out. ffffound allows you to use 'j' to bounce between anchor tags for each image, fixing it toward the top of the page and allowing you to see it in full. There are also keys to scroll upwards, and to go back and forth between pages. It's really easy to scan. Another nice touch - this one only noticable once you've joined - is the distinction between "posted" and "found" images. The former are those you've added with the bookmarklet, whereas the latter include those you saw on the site. Both have RSS feeds, too, which is nice.

There are very few issues I have with the site. I suppose an API would be nice, but to be honest for what I want to do - possibly include my found images on my site - the RSS is perfectly sufficient. However, I do worry that a single big list of found images will make it hard for me to get images I like back out of ffffound when I want them. An API would fix this, if it exposed the date and title metadata already on the image. I've also had trouble with the bookmarklet on Safari 3 on Windows, but that browser is so crashy I'm reluctant to blame ffffound for it.

Browsing, and then using, ffffound also prompted me to think about Flickr's favourites. Unsurprisingly, a lot of images are from Flickr, but there's no real integration at either end. Personally, I'm making a bit of a distinction; if it's on Flickr and obviously a photo (as opposed to artwork), I'm still adding it as a favourite there; otherwise, it'll be on ffffound. Most other ffffound users don't seem as picky, though. I wonder what the "API users are stealing my images" crowd will do when they find out?

Anyway, I'm very happy to be on ffffound, which has some great touches, and hope that some of its lessons can be taken over to Flickr.