Today, Flickr launched Camera Finder, which lets people browse and track trends in camera usage on Flickr. In addition, they’ve linked in camera price comparison and shopping at Yahoo Shopping, which is a brilliant move.

Currently, the most popular camera on Flickr is the Canon Rebel XT.

When I’m in the market for a new camera, I typically peruse sites like Amazon and dpreview for specs and sample pictures. But, nothing beats looking at pictures taken with the camera from people like me. This is where Flickr’s Camera Finder comes in–they let people see the performance of the camera in the hands of the people. Amazon does this to an extent, by allowing people to upload sample pictures for products. But, their collection pales in comparison to the one that passionate Flickr users upload.

What Flickr should do is to allow sites like Amazon to get access to their photo collection for either a fee or revenue sharing. In the end, this could very well be one of the most lucrative moves Flickr has undertaken.

During the Stirr Mixer, we caught up with Adam Marsh, the CEO of PrefPass for a quick interview.

The goal of PrefPass is to personalize websites without having to register. They provide an easy means for site managers to validate users. And, in turn, the users get a quick way to login without the hassles of filling out long and tedious forms. PrefPass will also be able to track the preferences of users as they login to numerous PrefPass enabled sites. This preference data can later be used for contextual ads and other useful tools for site managers.

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Interview with Adam Marsh of PrefPass (3 minutes, direct download)

At the last SF New Tech Meetup, we did an interview with Ori Soen, the CEO of MuseStorm. MuseStorm is in the hot field of widgets, providing services that are built on top of dynamic web data. Their company is based in Israel, so it was a real treat to see Ori in the Bay Area, who was here for the Widgets Live Conference.

In addition, let’s give Joanne Wan (of Stirr and Valleywag fame) a big welcome for conducting her first interview here at BuzzShout!

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Interview with Ori Soen of MuseStorm (5 min, direct download)

Photo by Scott Beale

Nick Douglas of Valleywag has left the building. The talented and sometimes controversial writer is no longer the lead editor at Valleywag, and, they are looking to fill his shoes.

Valleywag says

Nick Douglas, editor since launch earlier this year, is leaving. […] Nick Douglas, the kid we plucked from college to launch Valleywag, will be a great journalist. And we will look stupid for letting him go. (To reach Nick Douglas, send email to popsnap at gmail dot com.) But, to helm the site, we’re now looking for someone with, ideally, some background in reporting.

For a blog that tries to reveal everything about industry gossip and secrets, they’re certainly keeping Nick Douglas’s departure rather low key. He really was the voice of Valleywag, and, even though I don’t usually read it everyday, I enjoyed his witty banter on the state of Web 2.0 gossip. It won’t be the same without him.

Now, he can start his own blog, and, I’m sure that the first entry will be about the circumstances of departure from VW.

Also, VW has also redesigned their page, and oh, what a horrible redesign it is. They say that the original design of VW was weak, but, I think that it’s not only weaker now, it’s bad on the eyes. The original design was one of my favorites in the gawker regime.

Will this be the start of the decline of VW? Nick really had the personality within the Web 2.0 world, and, his departure will leave the new guy with a lot of catching up to do.

Tomorrow, there will be an event organized by Monte Jade that features a panel discussing the transition from an employee to a founder. This is especially relevant in the current fertile climate of Web 2.0 companies. Many times, the founders of these companies have made the jump, or are thinking about making the jump, from their day job to a potentially risky job as CEO.

The panelists include some founders who have successfully made this transition:

• Tom Cole - Partner at Trinity Ventures
• Dave Lu - Founder of FanPop
• Charles Ying - Founder of Mobile80

This event should be especially interesting to people who are curious to see the trials, tribulations, and delight in heading off on your own as a business trailblazer.

When
Tuesday, November 14, 2006
6:30 PM - 9:30 PM

Where
Orrick
1000 Marsh Road
Menlo Park, California 94025

For more details and registration, refer to the Upcoming.org page.

Michael Masnick, the President and CEO of Techdirt, was gracious enough to do an interview with us at the Office 2.0 Conference. Techdirt, which has been around since 1997, has a simple mission: getting the right information to the right people at the right time. They do this by employing a balance between human expertise and technology.

In the interview, Michael talks about what Techdirt does, including some of their new initiatives, such as the Techdirt Insight Community, which allows companies to harness the knowledge and expertise of bloggers. Find out if you can be part of the Techdirt Insight Community, and get paid to blog. Speaking of blogs, Techdirt is a great one, but what other blogs does Michael like? Find out now…

     

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Today, CNET launched Webware, their new web applications oriented blog. The blog is the brainchild of Rafe Needleman, who also writes for the Alpha Blog.

I had a chat with Rafe a while back about the name Webware, which he says is a perfect description of the new applications that are being served up in a web browser. And indeed, the word webware in this context has been picking up according to Technorati.

So, once you get your fill of reviews here at BuzzShout, make sure to check out Webware for CNET’s take on next generation web applications.

Photo by Scott Beale

Last night, I ventured over to the first annual Vloggies, the award ceremony celebrating the top video bloggers in the world. The show, which was held at the Swedish American Hall in SF, was absolutely fantastic. To be honest, I wasn’t sure what to expect–but, needless to say, my empty expectations were surpassed tenfold. Aside from a few technical issues in the beginning, the entire show went smoothly and professionally.

I go to a lot of tech events in the bay area, and the Vloggies was like no other tech event. This really was an award show. Most people showed up in their best dresses and suits, ready to receive or give awards. The show was also entertaining, striking the right balance between breadth and depth. This is really important, since there was no way they could have presented the thousands of video blogging nominees from all over the world.

The Vloggies was principally created and executed by John Furrier and Irina Slutsky of PodTech. Irina also hosted the show, and did a wonderful job.

Whenever I go to shows like these, I always find it surreal to watch video blogs on a big screen. When you think of Social Media, you usually imagine the millions of small screens that video blogs can easily reach. Traditional media is what we usually associate with big screens and budgets. It’s nice to see the big recognition that vloggers deserve.

In true SF fashion, there was a gaggle of top A-list bloggers, vloggers, and entrepreneurs were in the crowd, including Robert Scoble, Renee Blodgett, Kevin Rose, and Thomas Hawk. And obviously, there’s a steady stream of photos being uploaded to Flickr.

Scott Beale’s blog, LaughingSquid.com, marries art, culture and technology. But did you know that Laughing Squid is also a web-hosting company, and that he has used the brand for several other of his past businesses? How did Scott become so well known in San Francisco? Is it because of his eclectic blog, or maybe his photos? Find out in this exclusive interview where we catch up with Scott at the StyleHive launch party.

Click To Play

Interview with Scott Beale (6 minutes, direct download)

411Sync, which was profiled a few months back here on the Shoutblog, has reached over 10,000 keywords created. That’s a tenfold increase in 3 months. They are seeing over 160 keywords being made everyday.

411Sync is the only company that I know of that is letting users dynamically create and share keywords for mobile phones. Think Yubnub, but for mobile phones.

Keywords are really the way to go in the mobile space, since it allows users to access a deep selection of services without the hassle of menus. 411Sync recently turned down an acquisition offer from a privately held mobile email company. The CEO, Manish Lachwani, tells us that an acquisition at this point would be too early, since they’re currently working hard on new features that they’ll be rolling out.

411Sync also rolled out an SMS bookmarklet, which allows users to easily send web clippings to their phones.